Martyn's Law never says the word CCTV. It says monitoring. That is the part that matters.
The Act does not tell you which cameras to buy. It asks whether your venue can spot trouble and respond to it. Here is what that means for the cameras you already own.
In one line
Martyn's Law does not mandate CCTV. It requires standard tier venues to have workable response procedures, and enhanced tier venues to add documented protective measures, with monitoring one of the categories guidance names. For most venues, the cameras already on the wall are how monitoring gets evidenced. The gap is rarely the cameras. It is whether anything is watching them.
01 · The requirement
What does Martyn's Law actually require of venues?
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 splits in-scope venues into two tiers. Standard tier covers premises where 200 to 799 people can reasonably be expected at once. These venues need procedures their staff can actually run: evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication. Penalties for standard tier failures reach £10,000, with daily penalties of up to £500 for continuing breaches.
Enhanced tier covers premises and events at 800 plus. These venues must also put proportionate protective measures in place, document how those measures reduce vulnerability and harm, and submit that documentation to the Security Industry Authority. Guidance groups the measures into four categories: monitoring, movement of people, physical security and security of information. Enhanced tier penalties reach £18 million or five per cent of worldwide revenue.
CCTV appears in official guidance as an example of monitoring. Not as a requirement, and not as a product recommendation. The Act is deliberately neutral on technology. What it cares about is whether the measure works and whether you can show it.
02 · The gap
Is recorded CCTV enough for Martyn's Law?
Most venues already own cameras. Very few venues watch them. A typical estate records everything, is reviewed after incidents, and spends match nights and Saturday peaks unmonitored because nobody can watch forty feeds at once. That is recording, and it is useful. It is not monitoring.
Monitoring means the venue can notice a developing situation while there is still time to do something about it: the person who has walked into a restricted corridor, the crowd building against a locked exit, the loiterer who has been studying your entrance for twenty minutes. For an enhanced tier venue documenting its protective measures, the honest question is simple. If it happened tonight, would anyone see it before it finished happening?
You do not need new cameras to close that gap. You need something watching the ones you have.
03 · Closing the gap
How do you turn existing CCTV into active monitoring?
Archangel connects to the IP cameras you already own through RTSP or ONVIF and watches every feed simultaneously, through more than 15 behaviour detection layers. When it sees a pattern that matters, your team gets an alert with the camera, the location and a short clip, in seconds. No facial recognition, no biometric data, UK built and UK hosted.
Every alert, and every response, lands in a log. That record is the difference between telling the SIA your venue is monitored and showing them. It is also what protects you the morning after an incident, when the question becomes what your venue did and when.
- Live on your existing cameras in under 48 hours
- Restricted zones, crowd build-up, loitering, person down and more, flagged in real time
- An audit trail written for the people who will one day ask for it
- Two months free on your own cameras before any decision
One honest caveat: no product makes a venue compliant on its own, whatever any vendor tells you. Compliance is procedures, people and documented measures working together. Start with your tier, then your procedures, then the monitoring that backs them up.
04 · Questions
Martyn's Law and CCTV: common questions
Does Martyn's Law require CCTV?
Not by name. The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 does not mandate any specific product. Standard tier venues (200 to 799 people) must have procedures for evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication. Enhanced tier venues (800 plus) must also put proportionate protective measures in place and document them, and monitoring is one of the categories those measures cover. Official guidance gives CCTV as an example of monitoring, which is why most enhanced tier venues will evidence monitoring through the cameras they already own.
Can I use my existing CCTV for Martyn's Law?
Yes, and for most venues that is the sensible route. The question the regulator will ask is not what brand of camera you own but whether your monitoring genuinely reduces vulnerability and whether you can show how. Cameras that record but are never watched are weak evidence of monitoring. Cameras that raise alerts, get a response and leave a record are strong evidence.
What is the difference between recording and monitoring?
Recording captures footage so you can look back after something has happened. Monitoring means someone, or something, is actually watching while it happens, so your team can respond. A recorded incident helps the investigation. A monitored incident can be interrupted. Martyn's Law guidance for enhanced tier venues is concerned with the second.
When does Martyn's Law come into force?
The Act received Royal Assent on 3 April 2025. The Security Industry Authority, which will regulate the Act, expects it to come into force in spring 2027, with the exact date still to be confirmed. The implementation period is the time venues have been given to get ready.
How does AI behaviour detection help with Martyn's Law?
It turns passive cameras into active monitoring without new hardware. Archangel watches every connected camera at once, flags behaviours like a person in a restricted area, a crowd building at an exit or hostile loitering at an entrance, and alerts your team in seconds. Every alert and response is logged, which gives an enhanced tier venue the documented evidence trail its SIA submission needs.