How to write your Martyn's Law procedures: evacuation, invacuation, lockdown

Before writing anything, walk the premises with fresh eyes. Note every exit and where it leads, the rooms or areas furthest from glazing and entrances, which doors lock and who holds the keys or codes, where staff are normally positioned, and how a message travels from one end of the building to the other when it is loud and busy. Every answer below comes from that walk, not from a template.

The legal standard throughout is so far as reasonably practicable: what is appropriate for your premises, weighed against cost and effort.^[2] A small venue's procedures can fit on a few pages. What matters is that they are real.

Evacuation under Martyn's Law means moving people out of the premises and away from danger.^[2] It overlaps with your fire evacuation plan but is not identical to it, because in a terrorism scenario the danger may be outside or at one particular entrance. Your procedure should cover:

• check_circleWhich exits to use, and the alternative when the primary route is the danger.
• check_circleDirection of travel once outside: away from the incident, not to a fixed assembly point if that point may itself be exposed.
• check_circleWho decides to evacuate and who sweeps each area, by role rather than by name.
• check_circleHow customers with reduced mobility will be assisted.

Invacuation is the one unfamiliar word in the Act. It means bringing people into, or moving them within, the premises to a place where there is less risk, typically when the danger is outside.^[2] Think of an incident in the street: opening the doors and pushing everyone out would move them towards the danger.

Identify your safer areas: rooms away from external glazing and entrances, ideally lockable, with enough space for a realistic number of people. Define the trigger (for example, police instruction or a credible report of an incident nearby), the route, and who closes the doors behind the last person in.

Lockdown means securing the premises to prevent people entering or, where necessary, leaving, in order to keep the danger out.^[2] Your procedure should record:

• check_circleEvery external door and window that can be secured, how, and how long it takes.
• check_circleWho holds keys, fobs or codes at any given time of day, including weekends and casual-staff shifts.
• check_circleHow you move people away from doors and glazing once locked down.
• check_circleHow you let emergency services in while keeping everyone else out.

Communication procedures cover how you alert people on site to the danger and tell them what to do.^[2] This is the procedure that makes the other three work. Decide how an alert starts (who can raise it and how), how it spreads (radio, PA announcement, agreed code word, or staff relaying room to room), and what is actually said. Scripted, calm wording prepared in advance beats improvisation. Include how you would communicate with people who cannot hear an announcement, and who calls 999 and what they need to be able to tell the operator.

The statutory guidance expects workers with a role in the procedures to know what to do.^[2] A procedure no one has read is, for practical purposes, no procedure. Build the four procedures into induction, refresh them at sensible intervals, and keep a record of who has been briefed and when. That record is also your evidence.

Then test them. A short tabletop walkthrough at a quiet time, twenty minutes asking what would we do if, will surface problems no document review will: the fire exit blocked by the delivery cage, the one keyholder who finishes at six, the storeroom that turns out to be the obvious invacuation room. NaCTSO's free ProtectUK training and exercising materials are a good starting point.^[4]

Premises change: layouts, staffing, opening hours, neighbouring tenants. Review the procedures on a fixed cycle, at least annually, and after any material change. Enhanced tier venues must additionally fold the procedures into the compliance document provided to the SIA and keep it current; see the enhanced tier requirements.

If you would rather not start from a blank page, Vigil generates site-specific drafts of all four procedures from a structured assessment of your venue, then tracks staff briefings and reviews for you. See pricing, or read about the standard tier requirements first.