In a series of articles, Professional Security Magazine editor Mark Rowe is looking at how vertical sectors stand in their journey to meeting Martyn’s Law, the legal requirement on premises and events to counter the threat of terrorism. To come will be places of worship, pubs and hospitals; first, universities.
Featured in the April edition of Professional Security is the University of Manchester, as aired at the Innovation Lab day by the security contractor Carlisle Support Services. Some themes stood out: the work is considerable, enough to require one or more designated persons; and it’s a process, whereby not only will a campus take a while to become compliant, but as unis change, so will the risk assessment. A large university may have 200 or more buildings, that each require assessing. To name only a few famous buildings, the Sheldonian in Oxford and the ziggurat halls of residence at UEA (the University of East Anglia) do not lend themselves to templates. Here’s one example of how the Home Office and Martyn’s Law campaigners were disingenuous before the law was passed in April 2025 to say that meeting the law would be low- or no-cost. Walk around many campuses, like hospitals, and the varied ages and looks of building are striking; again, a proper risk assessment will not be a cut-and-paste affair.
Porous and copious
To quote only some of those featured in Professional Security over the years, Aston in Birmingham, Leicester and University College London have porous perimeters; the casual visitor (and certainly the stereotypical student, walking carefree) might struggle to tell where the campus starts and the public realm ends. In some ways, though, unis are well placed to meet Martyn’s Law; they already have copious bollards, whether for strictly counter-terror purposes or to keep traffic and pedestrians apart; as in the case of Manchester, security departments are well stocked, with crime prevention, business continuity and other specialists. One university head of security speaking to Professional Security seeks to hire a ‘compliance manager’ to take charge of Martyn’s Law.
Their job would not be to carry out the risk assessment; rather, they would have oversight of the work, carried out by others, such as the student union, and conferencing department (many unis make money from commercial conferences; indeed, Professional Security has used Nottingham and Birmingham for its Security TWENTY series of events). Universities were earlier adopters and readier users than most of tech; they either use Google or Microsoft; the building risk assessments, then, will be Sharepoint documents, simply pulled out of the cloud if required, whether to show to an SIA inspector or for a refresh or ahead of a conference. The head of security likened Martyn’s Law (and security management by implication) to health and safety; 25 years ago, it was a ‘back of a cigarette packet’ affair, barely written down that is; now it’s standard.
ACT learning
Another aspect of Martyn’s Law will be staff training, whether site-specific (like what to do in a fire) or the UK Government’s ACT online training of about 45 minutes. Again, that’s not a no-cost affair (although ACT is free to view): the cost lies in the back-filling while staff take training, and paying overtime (unless it’s reasonable to ask minimum wage security officers or anyone to do training in their own time).
AUCSO date
Universities are arguably the sector best placed to meet Martyn’s Law. Uni security managers are among those who have met the Home Office (in London and, remarkably for such a London-based institution as the Home Office, in the regions) to hear from it ahead of its publication of the all-important statutory guidance; the necessary details about how to carry out the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025. As the April edition of Professional Security stated, UK private security awaits the guidance with increasing impatience. Two prominent members of the UK-based campus security managers’ association Aucso, Dale Murphy (Hertfordshire) and Ollie Curran (UCL) have come up with ‘pre-statutory guidance’ that’ll be offered first to members free and then to related associations such as Hebcon (the higher education business continuity network). The campaigner behind Martyn’s Law, Figen Murray, is a patron of Aucso and is among the speakers at Aucso’s 2026 conference at the University of Exeter from April 13 to 16; Martyn’s Law will be a main theme. As that annual event will hear, extreme violence, while rare, is a high-consequence risk not only due to terrorism; while the UK and Continent does not have the active shooter risks of the United States, the shooting at Charles University in Prague in 2023 casts a long shadow.
Photo by Mark Rowe: parked security vehicle, University of Warwick, spring evening.
