Does Your Beer Garden Count? Calculating Venue Capacity Under Martyn’s Law

The short answer: Yes, if customers use it. The Home Office guidance gives a pub’s beer garden and a restaurant’s outside seating as examples of land that forms part of the premises, and it makes no difference whether people are inside the building or out on the land around it. If your busiest regular sessions put 200 or more people on site at once, staff included, you fall into the Standard Tier of Martyn’s Law.

For most independent pubs and small venues, 200 is the critical line. If you run a cosy, 90-cover village local or a small town-centre boozer, you might assume Martyn’s Law (the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025) doesn’t apply to you.

Add a sunny Bank Holiday, fifty people on the patio, a crowded back garden and six staff on shift, and suddenly your head count passes 200. Here is how the number is actually worked out, what counts, what doesn’t, and how to be ready before the duties start.

How the Law Looks at “Capacity”

The legislation doesn’t care how many customers are sitting at your bar on a quiet Tuesday afternoon. Nor is it simply the maximum your fire risk assessment allows. The test is the greatest number of people you would reasonably expect on your premises at the same time, from time to time: your regular busy periods, counted with a sensible method you can explain, and including everyone working that shift.

Under Martyn’s Law, the tiers break down simply:

• Under 200 people: Out of scope (though your existing health, safety and fire duties still apply).
• 200 to 799 people: Standard Tier. Notify the Security Industry Authority (SIA) and have simple, practical procedures for evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication that your staff know.
• 800+ people: Enhanced Tier. On top of the procedures: physical public protection measures, a designated senior individual, and a written security document given to the SIA.

Most pubs, grassroots music venues and function spaces will sit around the 200 line or within the Standard Tier.

Does Outdoor Space Count? The 3 Deciding Factors

To work out whether your outdoor space tips you over the 200-person mark, look at these three things.

1. Is it part of your premises?

The Act looks at your building plus the land you control and use alongside it for the business. If customers drink, eat, smoke or queue there, treat it as part of your premises. Your premises licence plan is a good place to start, but it isn’t the legal test.

• Included: Beer gardens, patios, terraces, courtyards, smoking areas, and marquees on land you control.
• Less clear-cut: Tables on the public pavement under a pavement licence. The guidance doesn’t spell this out. The safest approach is to count the people you regularly expect there, and to plan for them either way: drinkers and smokers out front are the people most exposed to a threat on the street. If pavement tables are the only thing taking you over 200, write down your reasoning.

2. Fire Risk Assessment Numbers vs. Actual Headcount

Your fire risk assessment already contains a safe occupancy figure, usually worked out from floor space per person. It is good evidence, but it is a ceiling, not the test.

Say your indoor fire limit is 140 and your beer garden can safely take 80. On paper that is 220. What matters is whether you actually expect anything like that. If the garden is regularly full on summer weekends while the bar is busy, you are a Standard Tier premises, even if the garden sits empty all winter. If you never get close, use door counts, till data or booking records to show your real peak, and keep a note of how you worked it out. The SIA can ask.

3. Temporary Structures and Summer Peaks

Putting up a marquee for summer live music, weddings or the Euros? Planned, recurring peaks count. If the marquee is a regular fixture that takes you to 200 or more people at once, your venue is in scope. A genuine one-off that you couldn’t reasonably have expected, and don’t expect to happen again, doesn’t change your tier on its own. What counts is your realistic regular peak, not your winter average.

What Happens If You Cross the 200 Line?

Falling into the Standard Tier is not a reason to panic. The law was deliberately designed to avoid saddling small venues with consultant fees, metal detectors or full-time security guards. At Standard Tier you don’t have to buy equipment, alter the building or pay for training.

The duties are expected to start from spring 2027 at the earliest, and the government will confirm the date. When they do, your job comes down to three practical things:

1. Notify the SIA: A simple online notification that you are responsible for the premises, through the SIA’s portal once it opens.
2. Have Clear Procedures, Written Down: A practical, venue-specific plan covering four actions: Evacuation (getting people out and away), Invacuation (bringing people inside, away from a threat outside), Lockdown (securing the doors) and Communication (who calls 999, and how you alert staff and customers). Writing it down isn’t strictly required at Standard Tier, but the Home Office guidance says you should, and it is how you show the SIA what you have done.
3. Brief Your Team: Make sure anyone working a shift, including 18-year-old casual bar runners and glass collectors, knows the basics of what to do in an incident.

The Reality on a Friday Night Shift

The biggest headache for any licensee isn’t writing a plan; it’s making sure high-turnover casual staff actually know where it is and what it says.

When the SIA inspects (usually with at least 72 hours’ written notice), or a licensing officer asks about it on a visit, nobody will ask your newest part-time bartender to quote sections of the Act. They will ask simple operational questions:

• “If there’s an incident out on the high street, how do you lock this front door?”
• “If you had to clear the back garden, where would you send people, and how do you stop them bunching up in one spot?”
• “Can you show me a record that your staff have had a basic briefing?”

If your answer is a dusty binder in the cellar office that nobody has opened since 2021, you have a problem.

Get It Sorted in 10 Minutes with The Musterpoint

You don’t need to spend thousands on consultants to calculate floor plans and draft 50-page ring binders.

The Musterpoint was built for pubs, bars and independent venues who just want this done properly, in plain English and without the jargon:

• Instant Procedure Packs: Answer a few straightforward questions about your layout (exits, garden, door controls) and download your venue-tailored Standard Tier procedures straight away.
• Scan to Brief: Forget dragging casual staff in for unpaid two-hour sessions. Put your QR poster up behind the bar. Staff scan it on their own phone, read a practical three-minute briefing for your site, and sign it off.
• Instant Digital Audit Trail: Every sign-off is logged automatically with a timestamp. When someone asks for proof your team has been briefed, pull up your phone and show them the record.

Sort your venue’s Standard Tier procedures for a single flat fee of £129: no retainers, no consultant bloat.

Sources: Home Office, Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 statutory guidance (April 2026), especially paragraphs 4.10 to 4.34 on premises and counting. This page is general information, not legal advice, and is not endorsed by the Home Office or the SIA. Last reviewed 25 October 2026.