Martyn’s Law is coming to UK events. If you produce a festival, a show, a sports day or a corporate conference, it will change how you plan, document and run your site. Martyn’s Law and event security go hand in hand. The good news: the technology to meet it is already here, and it all runs on one thing, a network that doesn’t fail.
What is Martyn’s Law?
Martyn’s Law is the common name for the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025. It became law on 3 April 2025 and is named after Martyn Hett, one of the 22 people killed in the Manchester Arena attack in 2017. His mother, Figen Murray, led the campaign that got it onto the statute book.
The aim is simple: make venues and events better prepared to keep people safe if the worst happens.
The Act works in two tiers, based on how many people are expected:
- Standard tier: premises with a capacity of 200 to 799. They need clear, practical procedures for evacuation, invacuation (moving people to a safer place inside), lockdown and communicating with staff and the public.
- Enhanced tier and qualifying events: premises and events with 800 or more people. They carry the fuller set of duties: a documented risk assessment, a security plan, a named senior individual who owns it, and notification to the regulator.
The regulator is the Security Industry Authority (SIA). The Home Office published its statutory guidance in April 2026, and the SIA has consulted on how it will enforce the law. The Government has promised an implementation period of at least 24 months from Royal Assent, with the duties expected to switch on from spring 2027.
That sounds a way off. It isn’t. Event plans are built 12 months out, and event networks, the backbone of your security solution, are already being prepared. It’s important to start planning now.
What it means for event producers
If your event is expected to draw 800 or more people, you’re in scope as a qualifying event. In practice, that means:
- You need a responsible person. Someone has to own public protection, and for organisations at the enhanced tier that includes a named senior individual.
- You need to assess the threat. Document how your event could be vulnerable to an attack and what you’ve done about it.
- You need a plan you can actually run. Procedures for evacuation, invacuation and lockdown, and a team that knows them.
- You need to notify the SIA if your event qualifies. The SIA is currently building a portal that is expected to launch in Spring 2027.
- You need “reasonably practicable” measures. The law doesn’t hand you a shopping list. It asks for proportionate steps, balanced against cost, time and difficulty. A 900-capacity charity day is judged differently from a 20,000-a-day horse trials.
The penalties for the enhanced tier are serious, with fines of up to £18 million or 5% of worldwide turnover, so “we’ll sort it nearer the time” isn’t a plan.
One warning. Neither the Home Office nor the SIA endorses third-party products or services that claim to make you “Martyn’s Law compliant”. No supplier can sell you compliance. What good suppliers can do is give you the tools to deliver the measures you decide on, reliably.
How technology can play a role
The guidance is clear that the right measures depend on your event. But the same questions come up every time. Can you see what’s happening across your site? Can you reach everyone who needs to know, fast? Can you prove you were prepared?
Technology answers all three:
- CCTV and live monitoring give your control room eyes across entrances, perimeters and busy areas. PTZ (pan, tilt, zoom) cameras let operators zoom in on anything that looks wrong before it becomes an incident.
- Digital ticketing and access control show you who is on site and how many, so you know your numbers at any moment.
- Radio, VOIP and PA systems get instructions to staff and the public in seconds.
- Live dashboards and alerts flag a problem on the network or a device before it reaches your crowd.
- Records and footage help you review incidents and show how you planned and what you did.
Every one of these shares the same dependency.
How WiFi networks support the technology
Cameras stream over the network. Ticket scanners check in over the network. Control room systems, card payments and communication tools all run over the network.
If the network drops, your security layer drops with it. A camera that goes dark during a crowd surge is worse than no camera, because your team thinks they can see.
That’s why the network behind your security technology needs to be built differently from standard event WiFi:
- High availability by design. No single point of failure. If a switch, firewall or internet line fails, traffic switches to a backup automatically.
- Multiple internet routes. A main fibre line with a separate backup, such as satellite, keeps you online if one path is cut.
- Separate networks for separate jobs. Security, production, traders, media and public WiFi each get their own network, so a rush of spectators uploading photos can’t squeeze out a camera feed.
- Real-time monitoring. Problems are flagged within seconds, not discovered when someone complains.
- Capacity that matches your crowd. Planned for thousands of devices at once, not hundreds.
The rise in security at events
Security expectations at UK events have been climbing for years. Martyn’s Law formalises where the industry was already heading: more visible stewarding, more bag checks, more cameras, more control room oversight, and more questions from insurers, licensing authorities and sponsors about what’s in place.
For producers, that means security is moving from a line in the budget to a core part of event design. Planning for it early, alongside your connectivity, is cheaper and far less stressful than bolting it on later.
Case studies: connected, monitored and reliable
The event technology specialists at Wireless Solutions already build the kind of resilient networks this new era demands. Here’s how it looks on the ground.
Hay Festival: monitored CCTV on a high-availability network
Hay Festival sold more than 200,000 tickets in 2025. Before Wireless Solutions came in, connectivity across the site was patchy, and the food village couldn’t get online at all.
Wireless Solutions redesigned the whole event network, with:
- A dedicated 1G fibre connection with Starlink as backup
- A high-availability core with automatic failover
- Overlapping access points covering the entire site, including the food village
- 26 cameras across the site, with an SIA-licensed CCTV operative watching the feed around the clock from event control
- Additional perimeter cameras and an extra layer of network security
The result: no loss of connectivity during the live festival or the build period, 8% more ticket sales than the year before, and more than 50,000 books sold with every transaction on the network. The festival now has a long-term contract with Wireless Solutions.
Badminton Horse Trials: 20,000 visitors a day, 6,000+ devices
Badminton had 20,000 spectators a day, more than 600 traders taking payments and a live stream reaching over 100,000 viewers. Wireless Solutions designed a network supporting more than 6,000 simultaneous device connections across production, scoring, traders and live streaming.
The result: 100% uptime across all six days, even after torrential rain before the event. Wireless Solutions now manages the event’s fibre network. As the organiser put it, last year the WiFi was the biggest challenge, this year it was the weather.
Henley Regatta: WiFi and Security on a challenging riverside beauty spot
Wireless Solutions has been supporting Henley Regatta for over 5 years now, connecting multiple event production teams and hospitality areas along the banks of the river Thames – even beaming an internet solution from across the river to support the high demand for connectivity. We delivered 100% WiFi uptime across six days, including on-site digital ticketing and smooth trader payments. In 2026 security cameras were introduced across half of the course. These were called upon in their first year by police investigating an incident at the regatta. Footage could instantly be provided to support the inquiry and the solution was tested ready for when Martyn’s Law comes into effect in 2027.
What to do now
- Work out your tier. Check your expected attendance against the thresholds and read the Home Office statutory guidance.
- Name your responsible person. Decide who owns this before you need to.
- Audit your technology. List every system your security plan will rely on: cameras, ticketing, comms, payments. Then ask what happens to each if the network fails.
- Talk to your connectivity supplier early. Ask about failover, monitoring, network separation and capacity.
- Plan, then rehearse. A plan nobody has practised is just a document.
Martyn’s Law is about protecting people and the best event teams are already working that way. Build it into your event design now, and it becomes part of how you run the show, not a last-minute scramble.
Planning your next event? Wireless Solutions designs, installs and monitors event WiFi, internet and CCTV built for reliability. Get in touch for a free quote.
