In 2025, the UK enacted the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act (colloquially Martyn’s Law) to strengthen security at public venues in the wake of recent terror attacks. The law is designed to “improve protective security and organisational preparedness” by requiring those in charge of certain premises to consider how they would respond to a terrorist attack.
It establishes a tiered system of duties based on venue size.
Standard Duty venues are typically those expecting 200–799 people on site.
Notably, primary, secondary, and further education premises are explicitly kept in the Standard Tier regardless of capacity, recognising that schools already maintain safety procedures like lockdown and evacuation drills.
Enhanced Duty premises and qualifying events are premises or events where it is reasonable to expect that 800 or more individuals (including staff numbers) may be present on the premises at least occasionally or attend the event at the same time.
Under Martyn’s Law, Standard Duty organisations now face two core legal obligations:
These procedures should be simple, practical steps that “may be expected to reduce the risk of physical harm” if an attack occurs on the premises or nearby. Martyn’s Law explicitly lists the key scenarios that must be addressed including:
Orderly moving of people from the premises or building.
Moving people to a safe indoor area.
Immediate shelter in secure locations within the building.
Communicating with individuals on the premises during an incident.
Orderly moving of people from the premises or building.
Moving people to a safe
indoor area.
Immediate shelter in secure locations within the building.
Communicating with individuals on the premises during an incident.
In other words, every school needs a clear plan for swiftly getting people out, bringing them in / sheltering, securing doors, and alerting everyone on site when faced with a potential attack.
Importantly, these Standard Duty requirements are meant to be low-cost and non-technical – “there is no requirement to put in place physical measures” like new building modifications. The emphasis is on robust procedures and staff preparedness rather than expensive equipment.
Essentially, school leaders must ensure their emergency plans for terror threats are documented, communicated to staff,
and ready to deploy at a moment’s notice. (The DFE issues guidance on Emergency Planning and response for Education,
and help with planning checklists.)
Cosafe enables a school to alert staff instantly, disseminate instructions, report incidents, and coordinate emergency response, all from a secure, easy-to-use app. This not only helps fulfill the letter of the law but also significantly enhances the safety of students and staff during an emergency. Importantly, Cosafe is a software-based approach, meaning it conforms to the law’s intention of simple, low-cost measures (leveraging devices like staff smartphones or computers that schools already use, rather than requiring new hardware installations).
Cosafe has extensive functionality, which maps to Martyn’s Law obligations and other safety guidance including the DFE’s guidance on emergency planning and response for education. Much more than a “lockdown tool’ Cosafe adds value for school decision-makers by ensuring legal compliance and improving on-campus security:
Martyn’s Law mandates the ability to “communicate with individuals on the premises” during a terror incident. Cosafe addresses this by enabling instant emergency alerts that instantly notify all staff (and even students or parents, if configured) via push notification, text, or email.
Cosafe has extensive functionality, which maps to Martyn’s Law obligations and other safety guidance including the DFE’s guidance on emergency planning and response for education. Much more than a “lockdown tool’ Cosafe adds value for school decision-makers by ensuring legal compliance and improving on-campus security: In a crisis, for example, spotting an armed intruder or receiving a bomb threat, a designated staff member can trigger a school-wide alert within seconds. Every teacher and staff phone will flash an immediate warning, accompanied by preset instructions (e.g.“Lockdown now – this is not a drill” or “Evacuate to the assembly point”).
This rapid communication ensures no time is lost in warning everyone on site, fulfilling the law’s requirement for prompt on-premise notification. Cosafe’s reliable, multi-channel alerts help keep everyone informed and safe in those first critical moments, even if phones are in silent mode.
Customised alarm buttons
Lone workertimer & panicbutton
Secure messagingforredundancy
Customised alarm buttons
1-click access to web meeting
Safety check-inwith location
Interactive action plans
24/7access to critical
documents even offline
The law requires schools to have plans for evacuation, lockdown and invacuation scenarios. Cosafe provides the tools to execute these plans smoothly.
Cosafe enables your plans, procedures and instructions to be configured into the system. Then through the app’s intuitive interface, staff can activate predefined “Lockdown”
“Invacuation” or “Evacuate” protocols. This can automatically send step-by-step instructions to all employees – for instance, teachers might receive an alert to “Secure your classroom, lock doors, and keep students quiet away from windows” for a lockdown, or “Lead students to Exit A and proceed to safe zone at the sports field” for an evacuation.
Because everyone gets clear, consistent directives simultaneously, Cosafe prevents confusion and ensures the whole school responds in a coordinated manner. This directly supports
Martyn’s Law compliance by operationalising the evacuation and invacuation plans that schools are required to have on paper.
Unique Feature: Cosafe essentially turns your emergency plan into action at the press of a few buttons, ensuring that a planned response (whether to get out or hide inside) is executed quickly and uniformly across the campus.
Martyn’s Law isn’t only about reacting after an attack begins, it also covers what to do if staff suspect an attack is about to occur. Cosafe shines here with its incident reporting feature. Any teacher or staff member who notices suspicious activity (e.g. an unfamiliar person casing the school perimeter or a bag left unattended) can report it through Cosafe to alert the leadership team and security staff instantly. This report can include text details, photos, or location info. By empowering every staff member to raise a concern to the whole safety team at once, Cosafe creates a state of heightened situational awareness. This aligns with the Act’s guidance that staff be ready to act when they have a concern. For example, if a teacher uses Cosafe to report a potential threat, the school’s crisis team can evaluate it in real time and proactively trigger a lockdown or call police before an incident escalates. In short, Cosafe’s quick reporting and mass notification capabilities enable the proactive ethosbehind Martyn’s Law – identifying and mitigating threats at the earliest sign.
A core goal of Martyn’s Law is to “improve staff preparedness and responses” for terrorist incidents. Cosafe helps schools achieve this by acting as a platform forregular drills, training, and knowledge refreshers.
School administrators can use Cosafe to run simulated emergency drills (lockdown drills, evacuation drills) by sending out “drill mode” alerts to staff and tracking their responses. Because all communication and actions flow through one app, it’s easy to evaluate if protocols were followed and identify gaps for improvement.
Cosafe also allows schools to distribute emergency plans and instructions digitally – staff can access checklists or how-to guides for different scenarios right in the app, which reinforces their knowledge of what to do. This means every teacher always has the latest lockdown procedure literally in their pocket. By integrating training into the same system used for real events, Cosafe ensures that when Martyn’s Law procedures must be carried out under pressure, staff will be familiar and confident with the tools and steps involved. In essence, Cosafe serves as both a daily safety communicator and a continuous training aid, so that “all staff know what to do in the event of an incident” and feel empowered to act decisively.
During a live crisis, effective coordination among school leadership and first responders is vital. Martyn’s Law makes clear that someone at the premises needs to take charge and that responsibilities should be defined. Cosafe provides a central command hub where authorised users (headteachers, safety officers, etc.) can share updates and assign tasks in real time.
Through group messaging or incident boards in the app, the response team can communicate privately even as mass alerts are going out. For example, the school’s incident controller can use Cosafe to confirm when 999 has been called, to check roll-call reports from teachers, or to instruct facilities staff to lock certain gates.
All members of the crisis team see each other’s updates instantly, creating a common operating picture and preventing siloed information. This level of coordination means your school’s response is organised and unified – a key factor in reducing chaos and harm during attacks.
Unique Feature: Cosafe not only alerts everyone, but also helps management lead effectively through the crisis, ensuring no critical action is overlooked. Every step taken is time-stamped and logged, so the school has a record of how the situation was handled.
Finally, Cosafe provides an audit trail that can prove your school is meeting its Martyn’s Law duties. While Standard Tier premises are not required to submit formal security plans to the government (unlike the Enhanced Tier), the SIA regulator can conduct inspections and will enforce the law for serious non-compliance. All activities on Cosafe – alerts sent, acknowledgments received, incident reports filed – are securely recorded. In the aftermath of an incident (or during a compliance check), school leaders can easily produce logs showing when an alert was issued, which staff responded, and what actions were taken. This accountability is invaluable for demonstrating that appropriate procedures were in place and followed as the law requires.
In a worst-case scenario, having such evidence could protect the institution and its leadership from liability by showing due diligence. More positively, knowing that Cosafe keeps a detailed record gives decision-makers peace of mind: you can be confident your school is not only safer, but also audit-ready for Martyn’s Law. As the SIA’s enforcement powers include fines and even criminal penalties for neglecting these duties, investing in a solution that helps maintain compliance is a wise risk management decision. Cosafe essentially serves as a digital compliance partner, helping you tick all the Martyn’s Law boxes effortlessly as part of your day-to-day safety operations.
Cosafe stands out as a comprehensive tool that transforms these legal requirements into practical, achievable actions. By adopting Cosafe, MAT leaders and school leaders can strengthen organisational and campus security against terrorist threats and simultaneously streamline their compliance with the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025.
The platform’s ability to alert, inform, and coordinate in real time means that in a crisis, staff will carry out their duties swiftly and effectively – exactly what the law intends. For decision- makers, this solution not only protects your students and staff, but also protects your institution’s reputation and legal standing by ensuring you are Martyn’s Law compliant from day one.
In an era of heightened security obligations, Cosafe offers a proactive, professional approach to crisis management that gives everyone – from headteachers to parents – greater confidence in the safety of your school. Embracing Cosafe is a powerful statement that your school is committed to both keeping people safe and meeting its responsibilities under the new law, providing peace of mind in uncertain times.
Sources: Official UK Government Martyn’s Law factsheets and guidance have been used to reference the law’s requirements and context throughout this report.
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