The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act requires an assessment of the number of individuals who can be expected to be in attendance at premises and events. It will be necessary to determine the greatest number of individuals reasonably expected to be present at the same time.
How are premises expected to assess a reasonable figure for expected attendance within premises and events?
A range of methods can be used to make a reasonable assessment. This includes methods which those responsible for premises and events may already be familiar with, e.g. safe occupancy calculations for the purposes of fire safety or use of historic data.
For more detailed information on assessing numbers please refer to the following factsheet: Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025: Assessment of the number of individuals expected to be present (formerly known as ‘capacity calculations’) - GOV.UK
Premises: What does ‘the numbers it is reasonable to expect from time to time’ mean?
The assessment is of the number of individuals who may be expected to be at the premises at the same time, from time to time. The reference to “from time to time” reflects the fact that many types of premises will experience fluctuations in the number of individuals that they host and may have more than 200 or 800 individuals from time to time. The thresholds may be met only on certain nights of the week, or at certain times of the year, but can overall be considered to be met “from time to time”. Where that is the case, and similar attendance can be expected in the future, the premises will fall within scope.
Time to time does not refer to an average attendance, for example over a day or a week. It does not bring into scope premises that unexpectedly hit the threshold as one-off and it is not expected to do so again.
Events: Reasonable to expect at some point
To qualify as an event, it should be reasonable to expect 800 or more people present, at the event at the same time. This criterion will be met if the threshold is met at any point during the event. For example, if an event takes place over a four-day period, and the event organiser only expects to meet this criterion during the event’s final day, the event will be in scope of the legislation for its duration.
The organiser can use any reasonable method of assessing the number of individuals who may be expected to be present at the event and the assessment should include individuals working at the event.