Standard tier vs enhanced tier: what's the difference?

Martyn's Law has two tiers. The difference matters, because the gap between them is large — and most venues that worry about the enhanced tier are not in it.

The short version

	Standard tier	Enhanced tier
Capacity	200 to 799	800 or more
Core duty	Public protection procedures (s.5)	Procedures and public protection measures (s.6)
Senior individual	Not required	Required (s.10)
Compliance document for the SIA	Not required	Required (s.7)
Equipment expected	No	Potentially, where reasonably practicable
Maximum penalty	£10,000 plus £500 a day	Substantially higher

The exception that catches people out

Places of worship, childcare premises and educational premises are always standard tier, regardless of capacity.

A cathedral seating 1,200 is standard tier. A secondary school with 1,500 pupils is standard tier. A large mosque at Eid is standard tier.

This is deliberate. These premises are open by nature, frequently run by volunteers or by staff whose job is not security, and Parliament took the view that imposing enhanced duties on them would be disproportionate. If you run one of these, you can stop worrying about section 6 entirely.

What standard tier actually asks for

Two things.

Notify the Security Industry Authority that you are the responsible person for the premises. The portal opens in spring 2027.

Put in place public protection procedures — the four situations set out in section 5 — and make sure the people who work there are aware of them and can follow them.

That is the whole duty. The statutory guidance is explicit that standard tier measures are expected to be simple and low cost, with no requirement to purchase equipment. You are not being asked to install bollards, hire door staff, or commission a threat assessment.

The four procedures are covered properly in the four procedures explained, and the awareness duty in staff awareness: what the law actually requires.

What enhanced tier adds

Enhanced duty premises do everything standard tier does, and then three things more.

Public protection measures (s.6). Where standard tier is about what your people do when something happens, measures are about reducing vulnerability in the first place. Section 6 groups them into four categories:

1. Monitoring the premises and their immediate vicinity.
2. Controlling the movement of individuals into, out of and within the premises.
3. The physical safety and security of the premises.
4. The security of information that could assist in planning, preparing or executing an act of terrorism.

These apply "so far as is reasonably practicable" — the same standard used across health and safety law, which means proportionate to the risk and to what the premises can bear.

A designated senior individual (s.10). Where the responsible person is a body rather than a person, a named senior individual must be designated to take responsibility for the body meeting its duties. This puts a name against the obligation.

A compliance document (s.7). Enhanced duty premises must document how they are meeting their duties and provide it to the SIA. Standard tier premises put their procedures in writing, but they are not filing them with the regulator.

Which are you?

Work through it in this order:

1. Is it a qualifying premises at all? Some premises are excluded — transport hubs already covered by existing security regimes, parliamentary and devolved legislature buildings, and open land without a controlled boundary such as a public park.
2. Is it a place of worship, school, college or childcare setting? If yes and you are over 200, you are standard tier. Stop here.
3. What is your capacity? Under 200 is out of scope; 200 to 799 is standard; 800 or more is enhanced. If you are not sure how to arrive at the number, how to count your venue capacity sets out the six methods the Home Office accepts.

If you are near the boundary

Capacity is not a one-off calculation you do and forget. An extension, a licence variation or a change of use can move you between tiers.

Recalculate when the building changes rather than on a schedule, and keep a short note of the figure and the method — that note is what makes the answer defensible a year later, when nobody remembers how it was worked out.

The scope checker will place you in the right tier in about two minutes, including the always-standard-tier exceptions.