Let’s Stop the Speculation and Take Appropriate Action for Your Festival: Martyn’s Law (Protect Duty) 

While there is much talk around the events industry about the implications of Martyn’s Law, there remains considerable uncertainty over the extent it will be applied and it is still likely to be a couple of years before anything becomes law.
 
Although event organisers should always seek to do all they can to protect their staff and the public, there is as yet no legal requirement to apply anything proposed under ‘Martyn’s Law’ and, indeed, current discussions suggest that the law many not apply to open air events.
 
Russell Phillips, counter terrorism advisor who is close to the current discussions on Martyn’s Law, recently presented to the AFO conference on the subject – you can see his presentation here.
 
NaCTSO (National Counter Terrorism Security Office ) are also advising everyone not to pay money to companies offering training on a law that does not yet exist and will have many bumps along the road before it reaches Parliament.
 
However, there is an argument for event organisers to start thinking about the issues around this area and a good starting point can be found at https://www.protectuk.police.uk/ and its app for all mobile phones where they can stay up-to-date and start thinking about what they can do now to prevent or respond to an attack. 

Association of Festival Organisers (AFO): 10th Mar 2023 11:00:00