Guide
What your capacity figure triggers: 200, 800 and everything below
Updated
One figure, three regimes. Here is exactly what changes as the number moves, and which duties are live today rather than waiting on a commencement order.
The thresholds that matter
| Capacity, including staff | What it triggers |
|---|---|
| Up to 60 | A single escape route may be acceptable under Approved Document B |
| 61 to 600 | At least two escape routes or exits from a room or storey |
| Over 600 | At least three escape routes or exits |
| 199 or fewer | Outside the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 entirely |
| 200 to 799 | Standard duty premises: public protection procedures once commenced |
| 800 or more | Enhanced duty premises: procedures, measures, a compliance document and a senior individual |
| 800 or more at a ticketed event | A qualifying event in its own right, even at premises otherwise out of scope |
Which of these are live today
- Fire safety: live now. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 duties apply already, and escape route provision is a building regulations matter dealt with when you build or alter.
- Licensing: live now. Any capacity condition on your premises licence binds you today.
- The 2025 Act: not yet. Sections 5 to 10 have not been commenced. Only the guidance provisions are in force, section 27 from 10 April 2026 and parts of sections 12 and 18 from 15 June 2026 (S.I. 2026/320, S.I. 2026/622). No date has been appointed for the duties.
Moving between tiers
The Home Office guidance addresses this directly. A one-off, genuinely unforeseeable spike does not move you up a tier, and a venue that is out of scope stays out of scope after a single unrepeatable event. But planned or foreseeable peaks do count: seasonal sales, bank holidays and a recurring event that draws 200 or more all bring premises into scope. The obligation is to keep the assessment under review, not to set it once.
Premises inside other premises
For a shopping centre or similar, the numbers expected in each unit are added together for the centre as a whole, and the centre operator is normally the responsible person for the common areas. But when assessing an individual unit, the centre's numbers are not added to it. A small shop inside an enhanced tier centre can quite properly be standard tier, or out of scope, on its own figures.
Not sure which side of a threshold you sit on? Run the checker, then get the figure documented before anyone asks you for it.