Who it applies to
Two hundred people, in a building, used for one of twelve things.
That is the whole test. Everything else is working out your number honestly and knowing which of the exceptions apply to you.
The test
It is reasonable to expect 200 people present at the same time.
Not 200 through the door in a day. Not 200 on the licence. Two hundred human beings in the building at one moment, on your busiest realistic day.
Count everyone
Staff, volunteers, contractors, performers, anyone hired in, and visitors. The Home Office's own example is 750 customers plus 60 staff, which is 810 present and therefore enhanced tier, not standard.
Count your peak
The busiest realistic occasion, not an average week. For a school that is sports day. For a gym it is a Monday evening. For a church it is a funeral.
Write down how you got there
Assess it on a basis you can justify: a fire safety safe-occupancy figure, historic attendance, or seating plus standing plus staff. Then record the basis alongside the figure.
The exception worth knowing: places of worship and childcare, school, college and further education settings enter standard tier at 200 and stay there, however many people are present. A cathedral at 2,000 on Christmas Eve is standard tier, not enhanced.
By sector
Mostly places nobody would call a venue.
Standard tier is around 154,600 premises on the Home Office's central estimate, against 24,300 in enhanced. Every sector counts its people a little differently, and that is where the mistakes happen.
Retail & hospitality
Function rooms, beer gardens and the terrace all count. Seated capacity alone rarely settles it.
Places of worship
The wedding and the funeral put you over, not the average Sunday. And you stay standard tier at any size.
Education & childcare
Sports day, the school play, parents' evening. Education stays standard tier however large it gets.
Sports & leisure
Your peak is a Monday evening, not a Tuesday lunchtime. Count lifeguards, instructors and contractors.
Visitor attractions
Count everyone inside the buildings at one moment, not the day's total admissions.
Hotels
The wedding in the function suite, plus residents, plus the night team.
Village & community halls
A private hire your committee didn't organise can still put the hall in scope.
Source: Home Office impact assessment, standard-tier central estimate 154,600, range 123,900 to 177,000.
Uses that are covered
Twelve categories.
- Shops and retail
- Food and drink served on the premises
- Entertainment and leisure
- Sports grounds
- Hotels and guest accommodation
- Holiday parks and campsites
- Visitor attractions
- Health care
- Places of worship
- Childcare, schools, colleges and further education
- Libraries, museums and galleries
- Halls and community centres
What is excluded
And what is not caught.
- Open land on its own
- Parks, gardens and recreation grounds are not qualifying premises. A large ticketed event held on them can still be caught.
- Transport hubs
- Airports, railway stations, the underground and ports are excluded because separate transport security legislation already covers them.
- Private and residential premises
- Homes, and buildings the public cannot access.
- Offices and private workplaces
- Where the premises is not used for one of the covered purposes and the public are not admitted.
The awkward ones
Where a questionnaire should admit it cannot decide.
These are the cases the guidance genuinely leaves open. Our checker routes them to a review outcome rather than forcing a tier, because forcing one would be making it up.
You only cross 200 occasionally
The test is what it is reasonable to expect from time to time, not your typical week. A hall that is quiet all year but holds a 250-person wedding has a genuine judgement to make. Our checker will tell you it is a judgement rather than pretending to settle it.
The premises is shared
A hall let to other groups, a unit inside a centre, a school site used by a church on Sundays. There can be more than one responsible person, and the Act expects them to coordinate. Agree in writing who does what.
A small unit inside a bigger site
A shop expecting fewer than 200 people inside a shopping centre is generally not separately caught. The centre itself may well be.
Several buildings and some open land
The premises test applies to the buildings. Open land is only reached where a qualifying event is held on it, so assess large outdoor events separately.
Go deeper
The counting rules for your kind of building.
Six questions is quicker than reading any of this.
The checker asks what your building is, what it is used for and how many people are in it at once, then tells you where you stand and why, with the sources.