This week we delivered one of our RIBA CPDs to a major UK zoo and one of the questions that came back centred around Martyn’s Law, officially the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, and the recently published statutory guidance.
What was most revealing was the number of companies claiming to offer “Martyn’s Law compliant” products.
The reality is far more nuanced than that.
The statutory guidance for Martyn’s Law does not create a list of approved or compliant security products. In fact, the legislation is built around proportionality, preparedness and reasonably practicable measures based on the specific risks faced by a premises or event.
That means there is no such thing as a single “Martyn’s Law compliant” fence, gate, bollard, CCTV system or hostile vehicle mitigation product.
Compliance with Martyn’s Law is not about buying a particular product.
It is about understanding the threat, assessing vulnerabilities, implementing appropriate security measures and ensuring those measures form part of a wider protective security strategy.
A product that is entirely appropriate for one site could be completely wrong for another.
A city-centre arena, a sports stadium, a zoo, a school, a transport hub and a data centre all face very different operational requirements, attack methodologies and risk profiles. The security measures selected under Martyn’s Law need to reflect those differences.
This is one of the reasons why the statutory guidance repeatedly refers to:
- appropriate measures
- reasonably practicable procedures
- proportionality
- reducing vulnerability
- reducing the risk of physical harm
rather than prescribing specific products.
Good protective security is never achieved through a single product.
Effective Martyn’s Law compliance comes from layered security design:
- understanding hostile attack methods
- controlling access and movement
- reducing vulnerability
- improving detection
- delaying attackers
- supporting response
- and ultimately protecting life
Physical security products are tools within that strategy, not the strategy itself.
As organisations begin preparing for Martyn’s Law implementation, the focus should not be on chasing “compliant products”, but on developing proportionate, risk-based security approaches that genuinely improve public safety.
At Zaun, this is exactly why our RIBA CPDs focus on threat assessment, layered security and integrating physical security into the wider operational and architectural design of a site rather than simply specifying products in isolation.
Because ultimately, Martyn’s Law compliance is not about what you buy, it is about whether your overall approach reduces risk in a meaningful and proportionate way.
