Martyn's Law training: what staff actually need
Search "Martyn's Law training" and you'll find plenty of paid courses for sale. Here is the less profitable but more accurate answer: the Act itself does not require you to buy any of them.
There is no mandated course
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 requires procedures - written, understood, and something staff can actually carry out. It does not name a certification, a training provider, or a minimum number of training hours. The Home Office's own factsheet is direct about this: there is no requirement to purchase products or engage consultants to comply with the duty. That doesn't mean training is optional - it means the form it takes is up to you, so long as staff genuinely understand what to do.
What "adequate instruction" looks like per tier
The practical bar scales with your tier:
| Tier | What staff need to know |
|---|---|
| Standard duty (200-799) | Their own role in evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication for this specific premises |
| Enhanced duty (800+) | The above, plus their role in the documented public protection measures - monitoring, physical security, information security, vehicle security |
Notice what's constant across both rows: it's role-specific and premises-specific. Generic terrorism-awareness content is a reasonable starting point, but it isn't a substitute for staff knowing which door they personally lock, which route they personally lead people down, or who they personally radio.
Free official options worth using
Before paying for anything, two free resources cover a lot of ground:
- ProtectUK (protectuk.police.uk) - the official counter-terrorism advice platform, run with input from policing and security partners.
- ACT (Action Counters Terrorism) awareness e-learning - a free, short e-learning module covering how to recognise and respond to a terrorist threat, widely used as general staff awareness training.
These are awareness-level training, not a replacement for your own procedures - they're the "why" that makes your own "what to do here" instructions land better with staff.
Building training around your own document
The most effective and cheapest approach is to make your Public Protection Procedures document the training material itself, rather than treating training and documentation as two separate projects:
- Write the four (or five, for enhanced duty) procedure categories in plain language, specific to your building.
- Walk each relevant role through their section of the document directly - not a slideshow summarising it.
- Run a short practical drill so the walkthrough becomes muscle memory, not just a page they signed.
- Record who was briefed and when, in the same review log you're keeping for the document itself.
This is also why a well-structured procedures document matters more than a training certificate: it's the thing staff actually consult when something happens, and the thing the SIA would expect to see evidence you'd briefed people against.
What to be sceptical of
Anyone selling "Martyn's Law certification" as if it is a legal requirement is overstating what the Act asks for. Be equally sceptical of courses that teach generic content with no route back to your own site-specific procedures - useful as general awareness, but not sufficient on their own for compliance.
Who should actually deliver the briefing
It does not need to be an external trainer. In most standard-duty premises, the responsible person or a delegated manager who already knows the building can brief staff directly - they know which door sticks, which radio channel is actually monitored, and which staff work which shifts. An external trainer can be useful for general awareness content or for a larger enhanced-duty site with many roles to cover, but the site-specific part of the briefing - the part that actually satisfies the duty - is usually delivered better by someone who works there.
Refreshing training over time
Treat training the same way you'd treat the procedures document itself: something with a review date, not a one-off event. New starters need the briefing before they're relied on in an incident. Existing staff need a refresher whenever the procedures change - a new fire exit, a different lockdown room, a change to who holds keys - and a periodic refresher even when nothing has changed, simply because memory fades. Logging each briefing against the same review log you keep for the procedures document gives you one place to point to if the SIA ever asks how staff were prepared.
Give staff something to train against. VenueDuty Pro (£29 one-time) generates a Public Protection Procedures document - a 40-clause library across all four categories, printable, with a staff sign-off table you can use to record training as you deliver it. Start with the free tier check.
Check my duty tier — freeFrequently asked questions
What is required under Martyn's Law?
Procedures for evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication that staff understand and can carry out - not a specific training product or certification. See our requirements guide for the full breakdown.
Is Martyn's Law mandatory?
The duty to have procedures is mandatory once the Act commences, expected Spring 2027. How you get staff to understand those procedures - format, provider, frequency - is left to the responsible person's judgement.
Do staff need a certified course?
No. The Home Office factsheet is explicit that there's no requirement to purchase products or engage consultants. Free options like ProtectUK's ACT awareness e-learning exist, and instruction built around your own written procedures is what actually satisfies the duty.
What is a Public Protection Procedures document?
The written record of your evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication procedures, plus enhanced-tier measures where relevant. It's also the natural backbone for staff training, since instruction works best built directly around the document staff are expected to follow.