Staff awareness under Martyn's Law: not training

The sentence the whole duty hangs on

Paragraph 7.51 of the statutory guidance puts it in one line: staff with a role in your public protection procedures "must be made aware of the procedures and their specific role" (statutory guidance, para 7.51). That sits on the Act's own definition: public protection procedures are procedures "to be followed by individuals working on the premises" if there is reason to suspect an act of terrorism is occurring or about to occur (s.5(3)). Follow the logic through and the duty is plain sense. A procedure only works if the people expected to follow it know it exists and know their part in it.

Two words in that sentence do the work. "Aware" is the standard. There's no statutory training requirement and a briefing counts, though people with a role also need the understanding and tools to carry the procedures out (para 7.51). And "their specific role" means a general notice that procedures exist is not the point. The person on the door needs to know what the person on the door does.

There is no training requirement, and nothing to buy

Martyn's Law contains no statutory training requirement for a Standard Tier venue. No course, no certificate, no accredited provider, no renewal fee. If a sales call tells you a training package is a legal requirement for a venue like yours, that is not what the Act or the guidance says.

Briefing your own team, yourself, in your own building, meets the duty. If you want more depth, the Home Office publishes a free supplementary document of further resources and learning alongside the guidance, and the guidance itself is free on GOV.UK. Awareness is a job for a quiet Tuesday afternoon, not a line in next year's budget.

Who needs to be made aware

The guidance defines staff broadly: "all those working at qualifying premises or events, including employees, contractors, volunteers and others", whether full time, part time, shift workers or on other working patterns (statutory guidance, glossary). So the Saturday casual behind the bar, the contracted door supervisor and the volunteer who sets out the chairs are all staff for this purpose. Payroll status is beside the point; presence and a role are what matter.

The trigger is having a role in the procedures. If your evacuation route relies on the duty manager unlocking the side gate, the duty manager needs to know. Someone with genuinely no part to play in any of the four procedures is not who paragraph 7.51 is aimed at, though most venues find nearly everyone on a shift has some part, even if it is simply "move people towards the far exit and keep them moving".

Keep this separate from the headcount question. Staff and volunteers also count toward the 200-person threshold that decides whether the Act applies to you at all. If that is still unsettled, the free tier checker is the place to start.

What a briefing looks like in practice

Because no course is prescribed, a briefing you run yourself does the job. For most Standard Tier venues that is a short team talk: walk through the four procedures one by one, in your actual building, and give each person their specific piece. Who makes the announcement, and in what words. Who opens which exit, and who holds the key. Which room people move to if the danger is outside rather than in. Who phones 999 and who meets the police at the door. Fifteen minutes at the start of a shift covers it for most teams, and repeating it costs nothing.

How to show it happened

An unrecorded briefing did happen; you would just struggle to show it. Written records are not legally required at Standard Tier (statutory guidance, para 7.32), but the recommended way to demonstrate the duties are met is to write things down, and the awareness log is the clearest case of that. Our guide to whether a written plan is legally required covers the wider point.

A good log is small. Five columns carry it: name, role, the date they were made aware, which version of the procedures they saw, and who briefed them. The version column earns its keep the first time your procedures change, because you can see at a glance who has been briefed on the current version and who is still on the old one. Keeping that record dated and versioned, with each person's confirmation logged against the version they read, is exactly the kind of quiet housekeeping MartynsLawPack does for you, and a ruled notebook can do it too if it's kept honestly.

Turnover is the real test

The briefing itself is the easy part. The hard part is that people leave. A team that was fully briefed in March can be half gone by August, and the log that proved the duty was met quietly stops describing the team you actually have. Three habits keep it alive:

• Brief new starters as part of induction, before their first busy shift rather than after it, and log them the same day.
• When the procedures change, bump the version number and re-brief everyone with a role, so the log shows who is current.
• Cross off leavers, so the log always matches the people who would actually be in the building.

Hospitality feels this hardest: seasonal staff, students who go home in June, extra hands booked for one big weekend. If you run a pub or bar, our pubs and bars page looks at the awareness log in exactly that setting.

The short version

• Staff with a role "must be made aware of the procedures and their specific role" (para 7.51).
• Awareness, not training: no statutory course, no certificate, nothing to buy.
• Staff means employees, contractors, volunteers and others, on any working pattern.
• Brief in your own building, procedure by procedure, role by role.
• Log it: name, role, date, version, who briefed.
• Keep the log current: starters at induction, re-brief on changes, cross off leavers.