Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 (Martyn’s Law) update

Claire Morris, Associate

Shaping the Future of Public Protection: SIA to publish s12 guidance and trial notification system for public consultation.

Following on from our previous article cautioning operators against purchasing compliance products and consultancy services prematurely, the Security Industry Authority (SIA) has now confirmed that its draft section 12 guidance will soon be available for public consultation[1]. The public consultation will be open for eight weeks and we would encourage everyone in the licensed industry to take part.

The s12 guidance will provide more details about the SIA’s statutory enforcement and investigation powers and how they will be implemented, including:

• Focussed and risk-based approach: underpinning the SIA’s regulatory role is a commitment to adopting a targeted and risk-based approach to achieve safety through necessary and proportionate compliance measures.
• Engagement and achieving compliance: this will include how the SIA will decide what is a necessary and proportionate use of its statutory powers. For example, when it may be appropriate to provide advice and assistance in response to particular compliance issues, or to obtain further information to establish the details of any given compliance concern, through to taking formal enforcement action. It will also include how the SIA will set the level of financial penalties.
• Information and inspections: outlining the SIA’s powers to obtain information, carry out inspections, and use the information it holds to promote and enforce compliance.
• Regulator transparency: the nature and level of information the SIA will publish regarding its compliance work, and in what circumstances they will do this.

The s12 draft guidance will be published alongside the Home Office’s section 27 guidance on the compliance steps premises and events must take, expected in the spring. We can also expect the SIA to publish further information to assist those that must comply with Martyn’s Law as we get closer to the Act coming into effect.

The SIA is also building an online notification system that will allow events and premises to notify they are in scope for Martyn’s Law. This will be subject to testing and volunteers will be invited to take part in the development trials. Again, more guidance on notification generally will follow later this year.

What you can do as operators

The section 12 guidance and the notification system are intended to be practical so hearing from operators is incredibly important.

1. Keep an eye open for the publication of the section 12 draft guidance and take part in the public consultation.
2. The SIA will be inviting premises and events to help with the testing of the development stages of the notification platform. If you can, please volunteer to take part.

We will also provide further updates as soon as they are available.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/martyns-law-a-moment-of-reflection-while-moving-forward