Martyn's Law is a proposed piece of legislation to better protect the British public from terrorism in any place or space to which they have access. Figen Murray, mother of Martyn Hett who tragically died along with 22 others when a terrorist detonated a bomb at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in May 2017, has headed the proposal. Here, we look at how effective incident management enables you to follow the advice of Martyn's Law and boost your event and venue security.

Prepare your contingency plans

A lot of the most important steps in delivering effective incident management happen long before your event begins. Have a contingency plan ready to go in case of a terrorist incident. Martyn's Law proposes Guide, Shelter, Communicate:

• Guide people towards an appropriate location;
• Shelter people in lockdown for as long as necessary; and
• Communicate with your visitors, your staff and the authorities.

Use this plan to brief your staff just before an event.

Assign your incidents

If a terrorist incident occurs at your venue, you need to respond fast. You will not have time to decide responsibilities there and then. Make sure you know who will lead on incident response if such an incident does happen. This is also a good check to ensure that your daily roster of staff always includes staff with counter-terrorism training.

Keep an audit trail

This will be crucial if a terrorist incident, or any major incident, has occurred at your venue. You will need to show you recorded and assigned the incident, what communication took place, the plan that was followed, and the time and responsible individual for every action. Fortunately, if using incident management software, this audit trail will be automated digitally.

Reassure stakeholders and learn lessons

That audit trail is necessary to meet regulations, but it can also be a very useful tool for you to use outside of audits. Make sure that people feel safe and confident when visiting your venue, and make sure that you are constantly re-testing your contingency plans to ensure that they are as effective as possible.

Effective incident management gives you the tools you need to record, resolve and report incidents of any severity at your venue, putting you in a strong position to deliver an amazing event, adhere to regulations, and satisfy the proposals of Martyn's Law. Go and read our larger introduction to Martyn's Law and how venues can follow its guidelines before, during and after your event.