Martyn's Law and Premises Safety: How to Actually Reach People When an Attack Begins

Martyn's Law asks a deceptively simple question: when an attack begins, how do you protect the people on your premises?

Most premises still answer it the same way they did a decade ago, with alarms, signage, a trained marshal, and a quiet hope that it never comes to the test. The intent behind those measures is right. But there is one part of the problem the sector tends to discuss least, and it happens to be the hardest: reaching the people inside, in real time, with what they need to do right now.

This is the question worth sitting with, because it is the one Martyn's Law is really driving at.

What Martyn's Law is actually asking of you

Martyn's Law, the UK's premises safety legislation, moves responsibility for preparedness from good intentions to legal duty. Qualifying premises and events are expected to assess the risk to the public and put proportionate measures in place to reduce harm and improve their response to an attack.

It is easy to read that as a paperwork exercise: write the plan, run the exercise, file the assessment. But the legislation is pointing at something more operational. A plan only protects people if it can actually move them, and moving people in those first chaotic minutes comes down to one capability above all others: communication.

Safety infrastructure tells responders. It rarely tells the people standing next to it.

Walk any large premises and you will find an impressive amount of safety infrastructure. Alarm panels, CCTV, access control, public-address systems. Almost all of it is designed to detect an event and signal outward, to a control room, to security, to the emergency services on their way.

Very little of it is designed to speak inward, to the individual standing three metres from the incident who has no idea whether to run, hide, or stay exactly where they are. That person, the occupant, is closest to the danger and last to know what to do. Alarms tell people that something is wrong. They almost never tell people what to do about it, or update that instruction as a fast-moving situation changes.

This is the gap at the centre of premises safety, and it is precisely the gap Martyn's Law exposes.

From bystanders to a connected part of the response

The most valuable resource during an attack is also the most overlooked: the people who are already there. They can see what is happening. They can act in seconds. The question is whether your systems treat them as passive bystanders to be managed, or as a connected part of the response.

Share999 is built to make that second option real. It turns occupants from bystanders into participants, sharing what they see, receiving what they need, on the same live picture as the responders heading to the scene. A single report reaches everyone who needs it at once. Staff get clear direction. The public gets specific, location-aware instruction. And responders arrive to a situation they can already understand, because the people inside have been part of building that understanding.

Building communication into compliance

For organisations working through their compliance obligations, this reframes the task. The goal is not to produce a document that satisfies an assessor; it is to be able to demonstrate that, when it matters, you can reach every person on your premises with the right instruction at the right moment. That capability is what turns a plan on paper into a plan that holds.

The same principle runs through everything we work on, from venues and large events to schools, where the duty to protect people and the difficulty of reaching them at speed are most acute.

Martyn's Law is a chance to change the answer

For years, the honest answer to "how do you protect the people on your premises?" has been some version of "we alert them and hope." Martyn's Law is an opportunity to give a better answer, one where the people inside are reachable, informed, and connected from the first second.

If premises safety is your remit, the test is simple: when an attack begins, can your plan actually reach everyone who needs to act? If you are not certain, we should talk.

Request a demo or get in touch with our team.

OnScene Technologies' products support your emergency response. They do not replace it. In an emergency, always call your local emergency number.