In June 2026, Vivi hosted a webinar with counter-terrorism expert, Lisa Broad, to walk UK schools through exactly what Martyn’s Law requires, and what to do before April 2027. Here’s a summary of the key points from that session. Watch the full recording here.

What is Martyn’s Law?

The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, known as Martyn’s Law in honour of Martyn Hett, killed in the Manchester Arena attack, received Royal Assent in April 2025. It places a legal duty on every organisation within scope to have documented emergency response procedures in place and to notify the Security Industry Authority (SIA) of these response procedures.

The Act reflects a shift in how terrorism risk is understood: attacks can happen anywhere, at any time. Schools are within the scope. Terrorism risk must now be treated with the same seriousness as health and safety risks.

The SIA begins enforcing the Act from April 2027. That date is fixed. There is no central government funding to help schools comply.

Do Schools Fall Within Scope?

Yes. Any school or college where more than 200 people are expected to be present at any one time falls within the standard tier, regardless of size. As Lisa Broad explained in the webinar:

“all schools sit within the standard tier, even those with thousands of pupils. Events at school sites sit within the standard tier too.”

The responsible person under the Act is the governing body or board of trustees. Compliance accountability and reporting sits with them.

What Does Martyn’s Law Actually Require Schools to Do?

The Musts

Schools must notify the SIA that they are within scope. The SIA is still finalising the notification process, and this will be announced before April 2027.
Schools must have documented public protection procedures covering four areas: evacuation, invacuation, lockdown, and communication. Communication is a standalone legal requirement, not just a thread running through the others.
Those procedures must be reasonably practicable and genuinely reduce the risk of harm. The governing body carries full accountability.

The Shoulds — Which Lisa Treats as Musts

Staff need to know the procedures. A plan no one has read is not a plan.
Procedures need to be tested and exercised, not just written down. There is nothing in the Act that mandates pupil drills, but staff drills are critical. If a cohort includes children with SEND or trauma histories, the setting team knows their environment better than anyone; the call on inclusion should be made accordingly.
Every step taken, reviews, exercises, gap identification, improvements, needs to be documented. The SIA may ask for evidence.

The Three Things Every School Should Do Right Now

Review All Three Procedures Through the Lens of Terrorism

Most schools have fire evacuation covered. Martyn’s Law requires more. Lisa’s instruction:

” look at every plan through the lens of the worst possible thing happening.”

That means evacuation, invacuation, and lockdown, reviewed honestly against a terrorism scenario, not a fire. Several specifics Lisa called out that schools commonly miss:

Don’t concentrate responsibility in SLT. If your plan only functions when senior leaders are on site, it will fail when they’re not.
Plan for mid-incident changes. A lockdown may need to become an evacuation. How do you communicate that shift instantly across your entire site?
Account for grey spaces. The Manchester Arena attack made this explicit: pavements, drop-off areas, and anywhere pupils gather outside your gates e.g. immediate vicinity must be factored into your procedures, even though you don’t own that ground.
Address fire alarms during lockdown. Triggering a fire alarm to bring people outside is a documented terrorism tactic. Your procedure needs a way to verify whether an alarm during a lockdown is genuine before staff and pupils respond.

Treat Communication as a Standalone Legal Requirement

Communication is not a supporting feature of your other procedures. Under the Act, it is a separate documented requirement. Ask these questions honestly:

Can an alert be raised from multiple locations, not just the school office?
Can you reach staff who are outside, on the sports field, or in a building at the far end of the site?
Can you communicate silently if a threat is inside the building?
When the threat changes mid-incident, how does that information reach every member of staff instantly?

Bells and PA systems were not designed for this. They can’t distinguish between emergency types, not easily. They can’t reach every device. They create no audit trail. Schools that rely on audio-only communication need to stress-test that setup against these questions before 2027.

Start Building Your Evidence Trail Now

There is no funding. There is no extension. The SIA may expect schools to demonstrate what they have reviewed, what gaps they found, and what they did about them.

Plans don’t need to be perfect. The evidence trail just needs to exist. Start now.

A Note on Third-Party Hirers and Events

If external groups use your school site, an evening football club, a community class, a weekend event, compliance responsibility remains with the school. A schools hire agreements must stipulate what leaseholders are expected to do to comply with Martyn’s Law. In the same manner, open evenings or parent led events will also be the schools responsibility.

This applies even when no school staff are present.

Helpful Free Resources

Lisa recommended these during the session:

– ProtectUK – the counter-terrorism policing platform, with free guidance for organisations within scope

– ACT for Education – a joint DfE and counter-terrorism policing e-learning programme built specifically for education settings

– NPSA Guidance for Education Settings on Security-Minded Communication – directly relevant to building your communication procedure

How Vivi Helps Schools Meet Their Martyn’s Law Communication Obligations

Vivi is the campus operating system that unifies every display and device your school already owns.

In a crisis, a single alert triggers from any location, including a mobile device, and takes over every screen and staff device across your site in seconds. Staff cannot dismiss the alert without acknowledging it. That acknowledgement is logged. The SIA asks for evidence of who knew what, and when; Vivi produces that record automatically.

Vivi also supports zonal messaging. If one building needs to evacuate while the rest of the school locks down, send differentiated instructions to different parts of the site simultaneously. That’s the dynamic communication capability Lisa identified as one of the most common gaps in school preparedness.

Day-to-day, Vivi replaces up to four separate systems: digital signage, announcements, wireless screen mirroring, and classroom instruction tools. The displays already on walls carry all of it.

Watch the Full Webinar

The session includes a live product demonstration, a detailed Q&A with Lisa on specific school scenarios, including multi-use sites, MAT governance structures, and SEND considerations, and Lisa’s complete musts-vs-shoulds framework.

Watch the full recording here

To see how Vivi works in your school or college, book a 15-minute call with our team.