The Act is expected to come into force in spring 2027. Here’s what it asks of universities.
Martyn’s Law makes special provision for early years, primary, secondary and further education premises. It does not extend that provision to higher education.
Universities are used to being grouped with schools and colleges in safety conversations, but under the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 they are treated like any other qualifying premises. With commencement expected in spring 2027, the Security Industry Authority has begun urging the sector to prepare.
The point isn’t that campuses should close themselves off. It’s that open, busy premises need arrangements in place for the moment something goes wrong.
The two tiers
Which tier you’re in depends on how many people could reasonably be expected on site at the busiest times.
From 200 people: Standard Tier. You need public protection procedures. How you would evacuate, how you would move people to safety inside the building, how you would lock down, and how you would communicate with everyone affected. The focus is on being prepared, not on expensive physical security.
From 800 people: Enhanced Tier. You need public protection measures as well. Active steps to reduce vulnerability to an attack and the harm it could cause, in areas like monitoring and the movement of people.
Two things to watch on a university estate. You’ll probably have several premises in scope rather than one, though a group of buildings can sometimes count as a single premises. And large events with controls on entry can be pulled into the enhanced tier even when the building itself wouldn’t qualify.
The hard part isn’t writing the procedure
For most university premises, the standard tier comes down to two questions.
Can you start a lockdown quickly, with no confusion about who has the authority to call it? And can you get clear instructions to everyone inside the affected buildings?
The second is harder than it sounds. A lot of the people on site aren’t in your systems. Contractors, conference delegates, visiting families, open day applicants. Lecture theatres are sealed. Students in the library at 10pm aren’t checking email. If your plan depends on someone walking round and telling people, it won’t hold up. The real test isn’t whether you have a procedure. It’s who wouldn’t hear it if you ran it at 2pm on a Wednesday.
That’s usually answered in layers: audio for people who can’t see a screen, on-screen messages for people who can’t hear one, a way for staff to raise the alarm from wherever they are, and one place to trigger a lockdown across a building or the whole estate. It’s the kind of thing Audiebant builds.
