Does Martyn's Law apply in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?

What the Act itself says

The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 settles the question in one short section near the end. Part 1 of the Act, sections 1 to 33, holds everything a venue needs to know: which premises qualify, the two tiers, the Standard Tier procedures, the Security Industry Authority's role as regulator, and the penalties. Section 36 says that Part 1 "extends to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland" (s.36(1)).

That single line does most of the work. There is no separate Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish version of Martyn's Law, no devolved bill still making its way through a parliament, and no nation waiting on rules of its own. A hall in Swansea, a gym in Dundee and a social club in Belfast read exactly the same Act as a pub in Birmingham.

The same rules, wherever you are

Because Part 1 travels whole, everything inside it is identical in all four nations:

• The threshold. The test is whether it is reasonable to expect 200 or more individuals on the premises at once, staff and volunteers included. Under 200 the Act is unlikely to apply; 200 to 799 is Standard Tier; from 800 the Enhanced Tier generally begins. Our guide to who Martyn's Law applies to walks through the test in full.
• The carve-outs. Places of worship and childcare, primary, secondary and further education settings stay Standard Tier at any size of 200 or more, where that is the building's principal use (s.2(4) and Schedule 1). Higher education follows the normal thresholds. Same rule from Cornwall to Caithness.
• The duties. The Standard Tier asks for appropriate procedures for evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication. Staff with a role must be made aware of the procedures and their part in them (statutory guidance, para 7.51), and written documentation is strongly recommended but not legally required (para 7.32), in every nation alike.
• The regulator and the penalties. The SIA's functions sit inside Part 1 too, so one regulator covers the whole UK, and the penalty ladder is the same everywhere: the Standard Tier civil maximum is £10,000 (s.18(1)).
• The notification duty. Once the Act is in force, responsible persons everywhere in the UK will need to notify the SIA within the same window: three months from commencement day, or 28 days from becoming the responsible person if that is later (SI 2026/793, reg. 3).

If you have not yet pinned down which side of the 200 line you sit on, the free tier checker takes about a minute, and the answer does not change with the postcode.

The one part that differs: licensing paperwork

One slice of the Act does treat the nations differently, and it is worth seeing how small it is. Part 2 is a single section. It deals with plans of licensed premises, so that details "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism" can be kept off public licensing registers (s.34). Licensing law was already different in each nation, so the Act wires the change into each system separately: Schedule 4 Part 1 amends the Licensing Act 2003 for England and Wales, and Schedule 4 Part 2 amends the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 for Scotland (s.36(2)). It does not extend to Northern Ireland at all.

For venue operators this is background machinery. It concerns what licensing registers publish, not your day-to-day duties, and nothing about the four procedures or your records changes because of it. If you run licensed premises in Northern Ireland, the absence of this amendment takes nothing away from you either: the whole of Part 1 still applies.

A quiet footnote: devolved government buildings

The Act keeps Westminster's own premises out of scope, and it treats the devolved institutions the same way. Premises occupied for the purposes of either House of Parliament, the Scottish Parliament or a part of the Scottish Administration, Senedd Cymru or the Welsh Government, and the Northern Ireland Assembly or a Northern Ireland department are all excluded premises (Schedule 2, paras 1 and 2). Unless you happen to manage one of those buildings, this will never come up.

One expected start date, so far

Commencement works by regulations: the core of the Act comes into force on a day the Secretary of State appoints, and the section allows different days for "different purposes or areas" (s.37(2)). Separate national start dates are therefore possible in law. None has been announced. The published expectation is simply that the Act will be in force in spring 2027, with the exact date still to be confirmed, and nothing released so far suggests the nations will start at different times. Our guide to when Martyn's Law comes into force keeps the timeline current if that picture moves.

Practical notes, nation by nation

England and Wales. The baseline everything above describes. The licensing-plans change arrives through the Licensing Act 2003, which covers both nations, and asks nothing of individual venues.

Scotland. Same duties, same tiers, same regulator, same penalties. The only Scotland-specific line in the Act is that the licensing-plans change comes through the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 instead (Schedule 4, Part 2). It lands in the licensing system, not on your to-do list.

Northern Ireland. The full set of Part 1 duties applies, unchanged. The one piece of the Act that does not extend to Northern Ireland is the licensing-plans amendment (s.36(2)), and its absence asks nothing extra of you. The guidance does not add any Northern Ireland-specific steps beyond that; if something about your own licensing position looks unclear, check the official material or ask us.

The short version

• The Act's duties apply in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland alike (s.36(1)).
• Thresholds, tiers, procedures, penalties, the regulator and the notification duty are identical in all four nations.
• The only nation-by-nation difference is a licensing-register amendment that never reaches a venue's to-do list, and does not extend to Northern Ireland.
• Devolved parliament and government buildings are excluded premises (Schedule 2).
• One start is expected, in spring 2027 with the exact date to be confirmed; different national dates are possible in law, but none has been announced.