Wednesday, April 15, 2026 saw the publishing by the Home Office of statutory guidance, the all-important detail for the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2005. Now the 180,000 or so premises that come under whatโs commonly known as Martynโs Law can prepare to comply with this first of its kind requirement to take steps to counter the threat of terrorism. As itโs one landmark on a much longer journey, nowโs a good time to chart the story so far, and the foreseeable future.
Sunday, December 2, 2018: The singer Katie Melua is playing The Lowry at Salford on tour. Figen Murray has gone there. Sheโs been in grief for the death of her son Martyn Hett, among the 22 victims of the Manchester Arena (since renamed the AO Arena) suicide terrorist attack of May 22, 2017. Figen is dismayed by the lack of security around the venue. She determines to start an online petition and a campaign.
October 2019: The Manchester Arena Inquiry set up by the Government.
Spring 2020: Home Secretary Priti Patel has announced, unusually, that the Government will go out to consultation on whatโs then termed a โProtect Dutyโ. Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the world and leads to the UK’s first โlockdownโ which upends public policy-making and much else.
Summer 2020: according to volume one of the Manchester Arena Inquiry report (hearing evidence under social distancing), only now has a โblind spotโ in video surveillance at the Arena, used by the suicide bomber to loiter, been โcompletely eliminated by [Arena owner] SMG making alterations to its CCTV systemโ.
February 26, 2021: The Government goes out to consultation on a proposed โProtect Dutyโ. Among points for discussion: which places should the Duty cover โ open parks and beaches, even? Should there be a threshold of size of premises, and what number โ 100, 200, 300 or more? And what should the Duty entail?
June 2021: โVolume 1: Security for theย Arenaโ is published by the Arena Inquiry. In forensic detail it shows โmissed opportunitiesโ to have spotted and stopped the bomber. Inquiry chair Sir John Saunders notes that the Government is consulting on a Protect Duty, โand some of what I say in this volume of my Report will be relevant toย thatโ. Sir John makes plain his view; his Inquiryโs MR4 (short for monitored recommendation) is that a Duty โshould be enacted into law by primary legislationโ.
January 2022: The Boris Johnson Government publishes its response to the consultation. Priti Patel says: โMy number one priority is keeping the people of the UK safe.โ She says the Government is โcommitted to bringing forward legislation this yearโ.
September 2022: After months of speculation, the Boris Johnson regime falls, and Priti Patel as Home Secretary with it. After the brief Liz Truss premiership, Rishi Sunak as PM and Suella Braverman as Home Secretary pick up the reins. A refrain of Figenโs is the sheer number of Home Office ministers she has had to keep making relations with; including James Brokenshire, who died of cancer in 2021.
November 2022: The Arena Inquiry publishes its even more massive volume two, on emergency response to the attack. Again, the findings of shortcomings are devastating and all three emergency services make public apologies. The Protect Duty is incidental to this volume, except that Sir John suggests โa minimum standard of first aid equipmentโ might form part of the Duty.
March 2023: The Inquiry publishes its third and final volume, on the radicalisation of the Arena terrorist; the planning and preparation for the attack; โand preventability, that is, could the Attack have been prevented?โ Again, Sir John sets out how just about everyone that had or could have had dealings with the attacker could have done better: schools and colleges, Salford University, MI5 the Security Service and Counter Terrorism Policing.
May 2023: The Rishi Sunak Government publishes the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) draft Bill, for โprovision about the assessment and mitigation of risks of terrorist activity at, or in the immediate vicinity of, certain publicly accessible premises or eventsโ. Qualifying premises would โhave a public capacity of 100 or moreโ.
June 2023: The Home Office Select Committee of MPs hears evidence from Figen Murray, fellow campaigner and retired senior counter-terror cop Nick Aldworth and business and local government representatives and others on the draft Bill, as part of โpre legislative scrutinyโ.
July 2023: The Select Committeeโs report on the draft Bill is polite but damning; the MPs have โserious concernsโ with the draft and find it โnot fit for purposeโ; and point to โa lack of clarity about the overall purposeโ. MPs take particular umbrage at how parish and village halls would come under the law (though Conservative MP Sir David Amess was stabbed to death by a terrorist at a Methodist church hall in 2021). Unless something changes, the campaign is not going anywhere.
Tuesday, May 7, 2024: Figen Murray with husband Stuart and well wishers, set off the previous morning to walk the 200 miles in roughly 15-mile a day stages from the Manchester Arena to London, on a โprotest marchโ, โplan Bโ as Figen called it, to demand a law. Today is the most brutal uphill leg of the journey, leaving the lowlands and climbing into the Pennines. After the walk, Figen has a hip operation.
Saturday, May 11: Figen and Stuart and well-wishers while walking from Ashbourne to Burton upon Trent leave the Derbyshire Dales behind them; at least now the going is flatter.
Wednesday, May 22: About 200 security industry and other well-wishers gather at Marble Arch to accompany the Murrays on the final, short leg of the march. All well-wishers, even the shortest leg ones (who have braved unseasonal cold drizzle) are given yellow campaign badges by Figen (pictured, of the Manchester bee). She and Stuart meet Rishi Sunak at 10 Downing Street. As she recalls later, the PM promises her that his Government will make the law happen. What he doesnโt tell her is that later that day he is going to announce a general election, which he is widely expected to lose. Figen also meets leader of the Opposition Sir Keir Starmer who is as supportive of the campaign.
September 2024: The new, Labour Government is as good as its word. The new Home Secretary Yvette Cooper unveils the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill in the House of Commons and pays tribute to Figen. โMartynโs Law has been a long time coming,โ Yvette Cooper says (sheโs reshuffled a year later to become Foreign Secretary). Earlier junior Home Office minister Dan Jarvis signed off on an impact statement which makes only the haziest estimates of how much Martynโs Law โ because the authorities have embraced that name โ will cost to bring in.
Winter 2024: while the Bill passes through both Houses of Parliament with little if any querying, except from the Conservative peer Lord Frost, some interest groups seek special treatment, such as heritage railways and (by the bishops in the House of Lords) places of worship. Despite cases in the public domain of attempted and actual terrorist attacks on places of worship, notably the Christchurch, New Zealand mosques massacre of 2019, UK โ because the Bill is UK-wide โ places of worship will all come under the โstandardโ tier of premises of 200 to 799 capacity even if their capacity is 800-plus (which otherwise is a more demanding โenhanced tierโ).
April 3, 2025: The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act gains Royal Assent. Now comes an โimplementation periodโ of at least 24 months, as set by the Government. Thereโs much to do: by the inspector and regulator of Martynโs Law, the Security Industry Authority (SIA) and by counter-terror police who will arrange two of the necessary components โ a register of consultants that premises can seek advice from; and a training course for anyone to gen up on protective security so as to make their premises meet Martynโs Law (or, to become a consultant advising on compliance). The Home Office has to publish โguidanceโ under section 27 of the Act, giving necessary detail to the Act before anyone, including the SIA, can themselves plan to comply with the Act.
March 3, 2026: Speaking at the Safer Crowds conference of the UK Crowd Management Association (UKCMA) in Middlesbrough, Figen states that she might carry out another protest if the implementation of Martynโs Law doesnโt show signs of progress. As reported in the April edition of Professional Security Magazine, she has on her phone the clock ticking down to May 22, 2027, the tenth anniversary of the Arena attack.
April 9, 2026: Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service announces body worn cameras for firefighters, among the Manchester Arena Inquiryโs recommendations. The Inquiry heard how on the night of the Arena attack fire crews were held back from responding.
April 14: Figen is on stage as a panel speaker at the opening day of the annual conference of the university security managersโ association Aucso (sheโs a patron). The event hears from Laura Gibb, employed in January by the SIA as executive director for Martynโs Law. She gives a timetable including the law coming into force in April 2027 โat the earliestโ. What the delegates werenโt to know is quite how imminent publication of the statutory guidance, and the SIAโs own guidance (covering under section 12 of the Act) was.
April 15: The Home Office publishes the statutory guidance, as required under section 27 of the 2025 Act. Meanwhile the SIA publishes its guidance, which is required to go through public consultation. Now the 180,000 or so premises that come under Martynโs Law, besides โeventsโ that are in scope, have the detail for complying, though the SIA is procuring the โonline portalโ for those responsible for premises to log documentation to show compliance.
The future:
June 12: Consultation by the SIA on its guidance closes. Then the SIA will publish the final version of the guidance, โin good time before the requirements of the Act come into forceโ.
July 2, 2026: Figen Murray, Laura Gibb of the SIA and others are due to speak at the Blue Light Show for the emergency services at London Olympia, one of numerous places where Martynโs Law will get aired as pubs and clubs, theatres, shops and shopping centres, schools and colleges, hospitals and other premises come to grips with Martynโs Law.
May 22, 2027: While the authorities have all along been shy about setting dates for anything, the tenth anniversary of the Arena attack would seem an obvious and fitting day to announce Martynโs Law coming into force.
2027 to 2030: As with the SIAโs original work, the badging of door security, contract security guards, CCTV control room operators and bodyguards, itโs likely that the actual enforcing of Martynโs Law will take months or even a few years.
