Buyer's Guide · Updated June 2026
How to choose Martyn's Law training: a buyer's guide for UK venues
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 takes effect from April 2027. Every venue in scope needs trained staff and documented procedures by that date. This guide walks through what the Act actually requires you to train on, how training formats compare, what to ask any provider, and what passes muster at SIA inspection.
What Martyn's Law requires you to train on
The Act itself does not prescribe specific training topics. It requires responsible persons at venues in scope to put in place public protection procedures that are proportionate, documented, communicated to staff, and reasonably likely to reduce harm. That is the standard. Translating it into a defensible training scope means covering the duties associated with the venue's tier, the threat picture staff are expected to act on, the procedures the venue has chosen, and the evidence that staff understood those procedures.
The Standard Tier applies to venues with expected capacity of 200 to 799 people. The duty is to implement public protection procedures including evacuation, invacuation, lockdown, and communication, and to train staff on them. The Enhanced Tier applies to venues with capacity of 800 or more. The Standard Tier duties apply in full, with the addition of a designated Senior Responsible Person, formal documented procedures, and physical security measures that are reasonably practicable for that venue.
In practice, training scope at any compliant provider should cover: tier duties under the Act, hostile reconnaissance awareness, evacuation and invacuation procedures, lockdown procedures, communication under pressure, incident response and recovery, coordination with emergency services, and documentation and evidence for SIA inspection. Enhanced Tier venues additionally need training oriented toward the Senior Responsible Person and physical security assessment.
Five questions to ask any training provider
The Martyn's Law training market is fragmented. Providers range from free Protect UK and NaCTSO materials, to awareness e-learning bundled with broader health and safety subscriptions, to specialist scenario-based courses, to in-person workshops. Before buying, five questions will separate substantive courses from awareness products marketed as compliance training.
- Does the course cover both Standard Tier and Enhanced Tier? A course that only covers Standard Tier is fine for sub-800 capacity venues but leaves multi-venue operators with a coverage gap on their larger sites.
- Has the content been legally reviewed? Martyn's Law is new legislation and SIA guidance will continue to evolve. Content reviewed by qualified UK counter-terrorism counsel is the credibility floor.
- What evidence does the course produce per learner? A completion tick is the bare minimum. Pass/fail score is better. A decision-path log showing each learner's reasoning is the strongest evidence at inspection.
- Is it SCORM 1.2 ready? SCORM 1.2 is the universal LMS format. Anything else means either a separate platform login per learner (operationally painful) or proprietary lock-in.
- How are content updates handled? SIA guidance, sector annexes, and case law will all evolve through 2027 and beyond. Courses that ship updates as part of the annual licence stay current. Courses that charge per update don't.
For multi-venue operators, three additional questions matter: can the course be white-labelled to your venue or group brand, what is the licence model (per learner, per venue, or unlimited within an estate), and what reporting is available at portfolio level.
Format comparison: how training formats stack up
| Format | Typical cost | Evidence produced | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free awareness materials (Protect UK, NaCTSO, ACT e-learning, SCaN) | £0 | None at organisational level; learner-issued certificates only | Individual staff awareness, supplementing a paid course, very small low-risk venues |
| Awareness e-learning (short modules with multiple-choice questions) | £15-£40 per learner per year | Completion record, pass/fail score | Standard Tier venues with a single site and a small workforce |
| Scenario-based e-learning (interactive decision trees, branching consequences) | £1,500-£4,000 per venue per year | Completion, score, decision-path log per learner | Standard and Enhanced Tier venues, multi-venue operators, councils, anyone who needs defensible inspection evidence |
| In-person workshops (instructor-led, half or full day) | £200-£500 per attendee per session | Attendance record, instructor-assessed participation | Enhanced Tier Senior Responsible Person training, tabletop exercises, leadership briefings |
Most multi-venue operators end up combining formats: free Protect UK materials as a refresher layer, scenario-based e-learning as the primary trackable training, and in-person workshops for the designated Senior Responsible Person at each Enhanced Tier site.
What the SIA will look for at inspection
Enforcement starts April 2027. The SIA has indicated it will inspect proportionately, focusing first on Enhanced Tier venues and on incidents that surface a training or procedure gap. At inspection, the questions a venue should be ready to answer are not whether staff completed a training course but whether the training was proportionate to the venue, whether the procedures the venue has chosen are reflected in the training, whether staff understood the training, and whether there is documentary evidence of all three.
A completion certificate alone does not answer those questions. A decision-path log generated by scenario training, alongside the venue's documented procedures and a written training plan, does.
How Blend Training approaches Martyn's Law
Blend's Martyn's Law course is a 16-module scenario-based programme covering both Standard and Enhanced Tier duties. Modules 1 to 12 cover the shared duties: tier classification, hostile reconnaissance, evacuation, invacuation, lockdown, communication, staff training obligations, security assessment, coordination with emergency services, incident response, documentation, and working with third-party contractors. Modules 13 to 16 cover Enhanced Tier specifics: review and audit, Senior Responsible Person duties, and continuous improvement.
Each module is an interactive scenario in which the learner plays a role at the venue and makes decisions under pressure. Choices have consequences that play out in the scenario. The course produces a per-learner decision-path log alongside completion and pass/fail score, which is the evidence layer the SIA will look for at inspection.
Content is reviewed and signed off by qualified UK counter-terrorism counsel. Updates are included in the annual licence. Pricing is per venue, not per learner: £1,600 per year for a single venue, £4,000 for up to ten venues, and from £12,000 per year for local authority portfolios. White-label rebranding is included on multi-venue and portfolio licences.