Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill (aka Martyn's Law)

As previously reported the new Labour Government included within their manifesto a pledge to re-introduce Martyn’s law, which was lost when Parliament was dissolved prior to the election.

Today in Parliament the Home Secretary presented the ‘Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill’ which is the first step to introducing Martyn’s law. 

The Bill requires” persons with control of certain premises or events to take steps to reduce the vulnerability of the premises or event to, and the risk of physical harm to individuals arising from, acts of terrorism; to confer related functions on the Security Industry Authority; to limit the disclosure of information about licensed premises that is likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism; and for connected purposes.”

This new Bill differs in several keyways from the Bill introduced under the Conservatives:

1. The Capacity of “Lower Tier” premises has increased from 100 to 200.
2. For the first time the Regulator of the scheme has been identified as the Security Industry Authority (SIA) who will oversee compliance, ensuring clear regulatory oversight.
3. Prescribed training as was dictated in the former Bill has not been included in this draft.  Instead, “the person responsible for qualifying premises or a qualifying event must, so far as is reasonably practicable, ensure that appropriate public protection procedures are in place”, which would include consideration of specific training requirements.

Again, powers to exclude licence plans from public registers of premises which may be the target of terrorism are included in the Bill.

We shall keep you updated.