When people read the Martyn’s Law procedures, evacuation, invacuation, lockdown, communication, three of the four feel familiar. Communication is the one that quietly decides whether the other three work at all.
You can have the best evacuation plan in the world, but if you cannot tell thousands of people to use it, calmly and at the same time, it stays on paper.

The Act is deliberately outcome-focused. It does not prescribe a specific technology; it expects standard-tier venues to have appropriate, reasonably practicable procedures so staff can provide information to the public and respond coherently.
That gives you flexibility, and it puts the responsibility on you to show your communication procedure would actually function under pressure.

What “communication” actually means in your public protection procedures

In short: Under Martyn’s Law, standard-tier premises must have procedures to provide information to people on the premises if an attack happens — that is the communication duty. It sits alongside evacuation, invacuation and lockdown. In practice it means you can reach your whole crowd, quickly and clearly, and tell them what to do.

When people read the Martyn’s Law procedures — evacuation, invacuation, lockdown, communication — three of the four feel familiar. Communication is the one that quietly decides whether the other three work at all. You can have the best evacuation plan in the world, but if you cannot tell thousands of people to use it, calmly and at the same time, it stays on paper.

The Act is deliberately outcome-focused. It does not prescribe a specific technology; it expects standard-tier venues to have appropriate, reasonably practicable procedures so staff can provide information to the public and respond coherently. That gives you flexibility — and it puts the responsibility on you to show your communication procedure would actually function under pressure.

Three questions that test your communication procedure

• Reach. Can you get a message to everyone on site at once — not just the people near a speaker or a steward?
• Clarity. In a noisy, crowded, high-stress moment, will the message be understood and acted on?
• Speed. Can you switch from normal operations to safety messaging in seconds, in one action?

If the honest answer to any of these is “not really”, your communication procedure is the weak link.

Communication that works on the day, not just on paper

The strongest communication procedures are the ones you already use every day. A system that informs visitors about routes, timings and crowding builds the habit, the coverage and the operator skill — so that when an incident occurs, switching the whole site to safety messaging is routine, not improvised.

That is what we do at CrowdCows: real-time crowd communication from a central control room, across LED screens placed where people actually look. See how it worked at Silverstone F1, or read our Martyn’s Law and crowd communication overview.

We help with the communication element specifically. Your full set of procedures and your risk assessment sit with you and your safety advisers.