Volunteers on a rota
Bar volunteers and match-day helpers change each week. Everyone gets a short briefing link, and you can see who has confirmed.
Martyn's Law for sports clubs and clubhouses
On a big match day or at the end-of-season dinner, your clubhouse may hold 200 or more people. hailo writes plans that suit your building and briefs your volunteers, bar staff and the people who hire your function room.
Download Martyn's Law on one page for your noticeboard or committee (PDF, free).
When you might reach 200
- Derby matches and cup finals
- End-of-season dinners and awards nights
- Discos and private hires
- Junior tournaments and festivals
Count staff and volunteers too. Not sure? Check your venue.
A worked example
Keep people informed planMillbrook Cricket Club
Up to 220 people at once ยท standard tier
At the end-of-season dinner, the club captain is told to keep everyone in the clubhouse.
- 1The captain uses the microphone to read the short message on the card behind the bar.
- 2Bar staff close the doors to the balcony and the car park.
- 3A volunteer posts the agreed message in the members' group chat for anyone on the way.
- 4The captain gives an update every ten minutes until the police say it's safe.
Who counts at a club
Count everyone who could be at your premises at once on your busiest day: players and officials from both sides, members, guests and spectators, coaches, parents at junior events, and the bar and kitchen volunteers. The Home Office counts volunteers as staff.
Being members only doesn't take you out of scope. The law treats members of a club and their guests like any other visitors.
What doesn't add up is separate sessions. Juniors in the morning and the first team in the afternoon are two counts if the first lot have gone home. Your number is the most people there at once.
The clubhouse and the ground around it
Martyn's Law is about premises with a building. Parks, recreation grounds and open sports grounds are left out, unless you check payment, tickets or membership to get in. Charging a fee to hire a pitch doesn't count as checking entry to the whole ground, and nor do checks that only happen on match days.
So for a club on an open ground, it's usually the clubhouse you count. The Home Office gives the example of a volunteer-run junior football club on a public ground with no gates or stands. Its tournaments bring 200 people, but the ground isn't in scope, so nor are those matches.
If your ground is fenced and you always check who comes in, the ground may count with the clubhouse. Read the Home Office's guidance or run the scope check if that sounds like your club.
Busy days on and off the pitch
Look across the whole season, and the summer too:
- Derby matches, cup finals and the last home game of the season
- Presentation evenings, the end-of-season dinner and the annual ball
- Discos, quiz nights and race nights
- The World Cup or the Six Nations on the big screen in the bar
- Private hires: a wedding, a 40th, an Eid party or a Diwali dinner
Function room hires and members' parties
When you hire out your building, you stay the responsible person. The Home Office's guidance says to explain to each hirer what's expected of them, and to be able to show the SIA that you did.
That covers a member booking the room for a birthday as much as an outside group. Give each hirer a short briefing: the ways out, which room to bring people into, how to lock the doors and who calls 999.
A second plan for a made-up rugby club
Here's part of a made-up rugby club's plan for bringing everyone in (invacuation) on a home match day, when people are out on the balcony and the terrace.
It's written for one clubhouse, its doors and its volunteers. Yours is written for yours.
From a made-up plan
Bring everyone in planMillbrook Rugby Club
A made-up clubhouse with a bar, a function room at the back, a balcony and a terrace by the car park.
- When we use it
- There's a threat outside, near the car park or the road, and the clubhouse is the safer place.
- Who starts it
- The match day manager. If they're on the touchline, the bar manager.
- What we say
- Bar staff call everyone in from the balcony and the terrace, calmly, and close the doors behind them.
- Where people go
- Into the function room at the back, away from the glass doors and the windows.
- Doors
- The bar manager locks the front doors and the door from the changing rooms to the car park.
- Who calls 999
- The match day manager, who then keeps people updated until the police say it's safe.
Getting ready as a volunteer committee
The responsible person is usually the club itself, through its committee or company, not the chair or the bar manager on their own. One person can lead the work for the committee.
Your volunteers change from week to week, so keep the plans short and the briefings quick. The Home Office's guidance says learning can be a team briefing, an induction or an annual refresher, tailored to your own building. There's no course to sit.
Nothing is required by law yet. The duties are expected to start in spring 2027.
Why hailo suits sports clubs
Your clubhouse, not the pitch
The law is about buildings. hailo helps you work out what counts and plan around the clubhouse you actually have.
Function room hirers
When members or outsiders hire the room, they get a briefing for the building too.
What the law asks at the standard tier
Get everyone out
Evacuation
How you move people out of the building, or part of it, quickly and safely.
Bring everyone in
Invacuation
How you bring people inside, or to a safer room, when outside is the danger.
Lock down
Lockdown
How you stop people getting in or out, for example by locking doors.
Keep people informed
Communication
How you tell people what's happening and what to do: stay put, or move away.
What the standard tier doesn't ask for
No hardware, no guards, no course. It's about plans and people knowing them.Home Office factsheet
- Not needed: Security staff
- Not needed: Bag searches
- Not needed: CCTV or new equipment
- Not needed: Building work
- Not needed: A training course
Guidance worth reading from the Home Office
- Home Office: scope factsheet (which premises are in scope)
- Home Office: how to count the people at your venue (Supplementary Document A)
- Home Office: statutory guidance
Other organisations' guidance, for information. We don't endorse it and it isn't legal advice.
Questions
Do spectators on the pitch count?
Usually not. An open-air sports ground is left out if people can walk in without a ticket, payment or membership check, and charging only on match days doesn't change that. If your ground checks entry all the time, for example members only, spectators may count. A big ticketed match for 800 or more can still be a qualifying event. Read the Act, Schedule 2
Who is the responsible person for a club?
Usually the club itself, through its committee or company, rather than one volunteer. hailo helps you record who it is and tell the SIA.
We only reach 200 a few times a year. Does it still apply?
It applies if 200 or more people can reasonably be expected at the same time from time to time. A handful of big days a year can be enough.
Does charging at the gate bring our ground into scope?
Only if your checks limit who can get on to the ground generally. Checks on match days only, or fees to hire a pitch, don't stop an open ground being left out. A big ticketed event of 800 or more can still be a qualifying event in its own right.
Do members and their guests count?
Yes. A members' club is treated like any other venue, and members, guests, players and volunteers all count. Count everyone who could be there at once.
Our junior tournament brings 300 people. Does that count?
It depends where they are. On an open ground with no gates or stands, the Home Office's guidance says a tournament like that isn't in scope. If 200 or more can be in your clubhouse premises at once, count them.
We show big matches in the bar. Does that matter?
It can. The Home Office's guidance mentions big televised sports events bringing more people than usual. If you can expect 200 or more at once when you screen them, count those nights.
Do we need stewards or security staff?
Not for Martyn's Law at the standard tier. It doesn't ask for security staff, bag searches or CCTV. Your league or governing body may have its own rules for match days.
Do our bar volunteers need training?
There's no course to sit. Anyone with a part in the plans needs to know them and what to do, and a short briefing on their phone can do that. Brief new volunteers when they join the rota.
Read next in plain English
Guides
- What is Martyn's Law? A plain-English guide for venues
- Martyn's Law checklist: what to do, step by step
- What is invacuation? Bringing people inside, safely
- Martyn's Law and your fire risk assessment: what you can reuse
- Helping everyone out: people who can't move quickly
- Who is the responsible person for Martyn's Law?
- Does Martyn's Law need training?
- Martyn's Law penalties and fines: what really happens
- When does Martyn's Law come into force?
- Martyn's Law enhanced tier and qualifying events, in plain English
- Martyn's Law quick guide
- Martyn's Law committee pack
- Martyn's Law plan templates
- Questions to ask before you buy Martyn's Law software
- Martyn's Law glossary