The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, also known as Martyn’s Law, has received Royal Assent. Its introduction means premises with a capacity of 200 or more are now legally required to prepare to have public protection measures in place, including lockdown plans, by April 2027.
Designed to improve protective security and organisational preparedness across the UK, Martyn’s Law means that those responsible for certain premises and events must consider how they would respond to a terrorist attack. In addition to this, at certain larger premises and events, appropriate steps to reduce vulnerability to terrorist attacks must also be considered. Through the Act, qualifying premises and events should be better prepared and protected, ready to respond in the event of a terrorist attack.
To coincide with the Act becoming law, C-TEC has launched a new range of lockdown and invacuation solutions that can help schools, theatres and other commercial and public venues comply.
Specifically designed to alert people to act in a pre-planned way in a fast-moving incident, the solutions comprise a range of special wall mounting voice sounders and VADs and lockdown call points that can be easily added to C-TEC’s powerful ZFP and XFP CAST-protocol addressable fire systems.
For facilities that require dedicated lockdown solutions (i.e. separate to a fire alarm system), a range of ‘stand-alone’ lockdown control panels are also available, all of which can be seamlessly integrated with C-TEC’s lockdown voice sounders, VADs and call points.
Said Brian Foster, C-TEC’s UK Sales Manager: “Whereas the majority of our life safety systems are designed to help evacuate a building, our invacuation and lockdown solutions do the opposite. In a school, for example, the activated sounders on a lockdown system will play a distinct voice message to alert teachers and pupils to act in a certain way as part of a fully coordinated response to an emergency.
Added Charlotte Manley, C-TEC’s Sales Director: “As premises start to prepare for the full implementation of Martyn’s Law we anticipate strong demand for our solutions which are versatile, monitored, battery backed, competitively priced and can be tailored to meet the exact requirements of any venue.”
As standard, C-TEC’s voice sounders will sound a highly intelligible ‘Lockdown Procedure Initiated’ message when activated. However, devices with custom lockdown or coded messages are also available to special order to ensure the needs of any site can be met.
Contact lockdown@c-tec.co.uk for details/prices.