Martyn's Law, hirers and hire agreements
If your venue hires out its space, the Martyn's Law duty sits with the person or body in control of the premises — usually the management committee or trustees — not the individual hirer. So your procedures should account for how hirers' events run in your building. A regular hirer whose event reaches 200 or more people does not become responsible in your place; you still carry the duty, though you should coordinate for big external bookings. Nothing here costs money: a short paragraph in your hire agreement and a one-page summary for hirers do most of the work. The law is expected to commence in Spring 2027.
If your hall, church or club earns its keep by hiring out its space, one question comes up again and again: when a hirer runs an event in our building, are we responsible under Martyn's Law, or are they? It's a fair worry — and the answer is more reassuring than most committees expect.
Short version: for a community venue, the duty almost always sits with you, the body in control of the building — not the individual hirer. That sounds like more responsibility, but it's actually simpler, because it means there's one clear set of procedures (yours) rather than a different one for every booking.
Who the duty falls on
Martyn's Law places its duty on the person or body in control of the premises in connection with its use. For a community hall, church or club that is usually the management committee or trustees — the people who take the bookings, set the rules and hold the keys. A group hiring your room for an afternoon is using your building on your terms; they are not in control of it in the way the Act means.
So the duty doesn't hop from booking to booking. You don't hand it over to the yoga teacher on Monday and the wedding party on Saturday. It stays with the venue, and so do your procedures. That's the point most people find a relief once it lands.
This is the same principle we set out for owners and operators in our guide to who the responsible person is — worth a read if your arrangements are at all unusual.
What this means in practice: your procedures cover their events
Because the duty is yours, your four procedures — evacuation, invacuation (sheltering safely inside), lockdown and communication — should account for how hirers' events actually run in your building. Not a separate plan for each hirer; one set of arrangements that works whoever is in the room. A useful test is to picture your busiest hire: does someone there know where the exits are, what to do if the danger is outside, and who calls 999?
The four procedures themselves are explained plainly in our guide to the standard tier. At this tier there are no physical security measures and nothing to buy — the work is thinking it through and making sure the right people know the plan.
What a hire agreement can do — for free
You almost certainly already have a hire agreement. A couple of small additions turn it into the bridge between your procedures and your visiting organisers:
- A short paragraph pointing hirers to your procedures — where the exits are, what lockdown means in your building, and who calls 999. Three or four sentences is plenty.
- A one-page summary you hand over with the keys — a "hirer pack". The exits, the assembly point, the meaning of lockdown here, the emergency contacts. One side of paper, the same every time.
Neither of these costs anything. They're a few lines and a single printed page, and together they do most of the work of making sure an event run by someone else still runs safely.
The big regular hirer: do they become responsible?
Some venues have a regular hirer whose events are large — a dance school, a faith group, a market — and committees sometimes wonder whether, once that hirer's event reaches 200 or more people, the duty quietly transfers to them.
It doesn't. A regular hirer whose event reaches 200 or more people does not become the responsible person in your place; the premises' responsible person — you — still carries the duty. What changes with size is not who's responsible but how much it's worth coordinating: for a big external booking, a short conversation with the organiser about your procedures, your exits and who's in charge of what is time well spent.
When control is genuinely shared
There's a narrower situation worth naming. Where control of a premises is genuinely shared — two bodies jointly running the same building, rather than a venue hiring out to a guest — the Act expects the parties to coordinate, so far as is reasonably practicable. That's the coordination duty. In practice it means one conversation and a shared understanding of whose procedures apply, written down on both sides.
Most hire arrangements are not shared control: the venue is in control, the hirer is a guest, and the duty plainly sits with the venue. But if your building is run jointly with another organisation, settling this early — in writing — is the most valuable few minutes of the whole exercise.
What to do this year
- Confirm who's in control of your building — almost always your committee or trustees, not your hirers.
- Check your four procedures make sense for your busiest hires, not just your own events.
- Add a short Martyn's Law paragraph to your hire agreement, and draft a one-page hirer pack.
- For any large regular booking, have one coordinating conversation with the organiser.
- If your building is genuinely run jointly with another body, agree and note who carries the duty.
Still working out whether your building is in scope in the first place? Start with the 200 test in our village halls guide, or run it for your venue in three minutes with the scope checker.
Common questions
If a hirer's event reaches 200 people, does the hirer become responsible under Martyn's Law?
No. For a community hall, church or club, the duty falls on the person or body in control of the premises in connection with its use — usually your management committee or trustees — not the individual or group hiring the room. A regular hirer whose event reaches 200 or more people does not take that duty on instead of you. You still carry it, so it is worth coordinating with them for big external bookings.
Should our hire agreement mention Martyn's Law?
It helps. A short paragraph pointing hirers to your procedures — where the exits are, what lockdown means in your building, and who calls 999 — shows joined-up thinking and makes sure visiting organisers know what to do. You do not have to buy anything to write this; it is a few lines you add to the agreement you already use.
Who is responsible if two groups share control of the same building?
Where control of a premises is genuinely shared, the Act expects the parties to coordinate, so far as is reasonably practicable. In plain terms: one conversation and a shared understanding of whose procedures apply, noted on both sides. Most hire arrangements are not shared control at all — the venue is in control and the hirer is a guest — but for buildings run jointly, agreeing this early is worth the time.
Does Martyn's Law mean we have to vet our hirers or add security?
No. At the standard tier there are no physical security measures and nothing to buy. The duty is to have four workable procedures and make sure the people who run your venue know them. Briefing your regular hirers is sensible, but vetting them or adding security equipment is not part of the standard tier.
Not sure whether you're in scope at all?
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