Martyn's Law and your place of worship
Churches, chapels, mosques, synagogues, temples and meeting houses are treated differently from every other kind of building under the Act, in one specific and useful way. This page explains what that difference is, what decides whether the Act applies to you at all, and what the four procedures actually mean in a building that is often open, often quiet, and occasionally very full.
First: whether it applies to you at all
The Act turns on how many people you would reasonably expect to be present at the same time, at your busiest realistic moment, counting staff and volunteers as well as the congregation. It does not turn on how big the building is or how many people are on the electoral roll.
| People at once | Where that leaves you |
|---|---|
| Up to 199 | The Act does not apply |
| 200 and above | Standard tier |
These bands come from the same checker that answers the free scope check, so this table cannot say one thing while the checker says another. The check asks about your building; this table is only the shape of the rule.
The peak is the number most people get wrong about themselves
Attendance at a place of worship varies more than at almost any other kind of premises. A church with forty people on an ordinary Sunday can have four hundred at a funeral, a carol service, a wedding or a festival. The question the Act asks is not what a normal week looks like. It is what you would reasonably expect at the busiest occasion you actually hold.
That cuts both ways, and it is worth saying plainly: some buildings that feel small are over the threshold on one day a year, and some that feel busy never come close. Neither is obvious from the inside, which is why we built the check rather than a rule of thumb.
The special case: you never reach enhanced tier
This is the part worth knowing. Premises used primarily as a place of worship stay in the standard tier however many people are expected, even above 800, where any other kind of building would move into the enhanced tier and a much heavier set of duties. That comes from the Act itself, at Schedule 1 paragraph 9(2), which says such premises are standard duty premises regardless of how they would otherwise be treated. The statutory guidance says the same at paragraph 5.29.
There is a second consequence that saves a lot of worry. Because an event at these premises cannot be a qualifying event, a big one-off booking does not pull you into a different regime either. The guidance gives the example directly: a concert expecting 800 or more people, held at a church, is not a qualifying event, and the premises stay standard tier.
Statutory guidance, April 2026 edition, corrected 6 August 2026. We show the paragraph number beside every claim so you can check it against the source rather than taking our word for it.
What the four procedures mean in a building like yours
The Act asks for four procedures: evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication. Written generically they are worth very little. What makes them worth having in a place of worship is the answer to three questions that are specific to these buildings.
Who is actually here, and who is in charge of them
Most places of worship run on volunteers, and often on different volunteers each week. The person who would need to act is frequently not an employee, has not been trained in anything, and may be doing it for the first time that morning. A procedure that assumes a duty manager does not survive contact with a Tuesday. The useful version names roles that exist in your building, in the words you already use for them, and works when the person holding one is new.
The doors, and the fact that they are often open
Many places of worship are unlocked and unattended during the day, which is a deliberate act of welcome and not a security failure. It does change what lockdown means. Lockdown assumes somebody is present to secure the building and knows which doors matter. Where the building is open and empty, the honest procedure describes what happens when somebody is there and what the position is when nobody is, rather than pretending there is always a person to act.
Where people would go, and whether it is really safer
Invacuation means moving people away from danger to somewhere inside with less risk. In a building that is one large space with a vestry off it, that is a genuinely hard question, and the answer depends on your building rather than on a template. It is the question our check asks most carefully, because a safer area that cannot hold the people you would put in it is worse than admitting you have not solved it.
What we do, and what we do not
Four Drills asks you about your building, checks your answers against each other for gaps, and produces the four procedures with the paragraph numbers shown, so you can check them against the guidance yourself. It is a documentation product. It cannot tell you that you are compliant, and it never will: compliance depends on what is true in your building on the day, and the people who understand your building are the people who are in it.
Where you stand, and what it costs
If your realistic peak is below the threshold in the table above, you have no duty under the Act, no deadline and nothing to register, and we will say so in writing, free. Some places of worship want the procedures anyway, and for them the pack is voluntary and costs £79 + VAT a year. Above the threshold, the standard tier pack is £199 + VAT a year per venue.
Duties commence in spring 2027. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and we are not affiliated with the Home Office, the Security Industry Authority or ProtectUK.