Martyn's Law for Schools and Education Settings

Which Education Settings Are in Scope

Schools, colleges, and universities with a capacity of 200 or more people fall within the scope of Martyn's Law. For most secondary schools, this threshold is easily met. Many primary schools will also be in scope when you count pupils, staff, and visitors. Universities and further education colleges almost always exceed 800 capacity, placing them in the enhanced tier.

Capacity includes everyone who could be on the premises at any one time: pupils or students, teaching staff, support staff, visitors, parents during drop-off and pick-up, and anyone using the facilities for after-hours events.

How Martyn's Law Interacts With Existing Safeguarding

Schools already operate under extensive safeguarding duties. Ofsted inspections, the Prevent duty, and statutory safeguarding guidance already require schools to think about the safety of children and staff. Martyn's Law adds a specific terrorism protection requirement on top of these existing obligations.

The good news is that there is significant overlap. Schools that take safeguarding seriously already have many of the building blocks in place: visitor management systems, staff training on recognising concerns, documented emergency procedures, and a culture of awareness. Martyn's Law formalises the terrorism-specific elements and ensures consistency.

The key additions that Martyn's Law brings for most schools are:

• Terrorism-specific risk assessment (distinct from general safeguarding risk assessments)
• Public protection procedures that specifically address terrorism scenarios, not just fire
• Staff training that covers terrorism response, including lockdown, invacuation, and evacuation under attack
• Registration with the SIA as a qualifying premises

Lockdown Procedures

Many schools have already adopted lockdown procedures following guidance from organisations such as the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO). If your school already has a practiced lockdown protocol, you are ahead of the curve. If not, this should be a priority.

A school lockdown procedure should cover: how the alarm is raised (distinct from the fire alarm), what staff and pupils do when they hear it, how to secure classrooms and other spaces, how to account for all pupils, how to communicate with emergency services, and how the lockdown is ended. Practice it regularly. Children respond better to emergencies when the procedure is familiar.

Access Points and Perimeter

Schools typically have multiple access points: main entrances, playground gates, sports field boundaries, car parks, and service entrances. Controlling who enters the site is a fundamental part of terrorism protection. Many schools have improved their physical access control in recent years, with electronic entry systems, visitor sign-in processes, and fenced perimeters.

Review your access control with a terrorism lens. Are there weak points where someone could enter unchallenged? Are gates locked during lesson times? Can visitors access the school without passing through reception? Address any gaps as part of your compliance preparation.

After-Hours Use

Many schools and colleges host community events, sports clubs, after-school activities, and letting arrangements that bring additional people onto the premises outside of normal hours. These activities contribute to your capacity calculation and should be covered by your procedures. The responsible person needs to ensure that safety measures extend to these activities, not just the school day.

Universities and Further Education

Universities face a different scale of challenge. A large university campus may have multiple buildings, each potentially qualifying as separate premises, spread across a wide area with open access. Thousands of students, staff, and visitors move across campus daily.

For universities, compliance will likely involve a campus-wide strategy with building-specific procedures. Central security teams can coordinate the overarching risk assessment and security plan while individual faculties or departments manage local implementation. AI monitoring across campus CCTV systems provides the kind of broad, continuous awareness that a security team alone cannot achieve.

Budget Considerations

Schools operate under tight budgets. The government has acknowledged this and designed the standard tier to be achievable without significant capital expenditure. Writing procedures, training staff, and practicing drills costs time rather than money. For schools in the enhanced tier, technology such as AI behaviour detection on existing cameras provides cost-effective monitoring that works within education budgets.

Start with the free measures: write your procedures, train your staff, practice your drills, review your access control. Layer in technology when budget allows, focusing on measures that give you the greatest return in terms of safety and compliance evidence.