Policy paper

Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025: Scope (Premises)

Updated 24 July 2026

This factsheet explains the type of premises that will be captured by the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 ^{[footnote 1]}. The Act covers both premises and events. Further information on which events are in scope can be found in the scope (events) factsheet.

Which premises are in scope?

The criteria for ‘qualifying premises’ are set out in section 2 of the Act.

Premises that satisfy the following four criteria fall within scope of the Act:

1. The site meets the definition of premises within the Act.

To meet this condition, the premises must consist of:

• a building (including part of a building or a group of buildings); or
• a building and other land

Some premises include land attached to a building, such as a pub with a beer garden, or a hotel with outside grounds used for dining and events.

There are also premises which are primarily outdoors but consist of one or more buildings on site. This includes, for example, certain racecourses, zoos or theme parks.

There is no specific requirement that the building is made of any particular material or is of any particular size. The premises must have some form of building on them at all times to be qualifying premises.

2. The premises are wholly or mainly used for one or more of the uses the Act specifies.

For premises to fall in scope, they must be wholly or mainly used for one or more of the uses that are set out in Schedule 1 to the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025. By ‘wholly or mainly used’, we mean that the premises are either:

1. only used for an activity in Schedule 1; or

2. where the premises has multiple uses, it is mainly used for the purposes listed in Schedule 1.

The categories of use set out in Schedule 1 to the Act are:

• shops etc
• food and drink
• entertainment and leisure activities
• sports grounds
• libraries, museums and galleries
• halls etc
• visitor attractions
• hotels etc
• places of worship
• health care
• bus stations, railway stations etc
• aerodromes
• childcare
• primary and secondary education
• further education
• higher education
• public authorities

Whether premises are wholly or mainly used for a Schedule 1 use is to be determined based on the circumstances of each premises. Determining what the premises are wholly or mainly used for may be a question of the amount of time that the premises are used for a Schedule 1 use or if there is a principal use. For example, a private historic residence would not be in scope, but it could be qualifying premises if it is mainly used as a visitor attraction (rather than as a private residence).

Where the qualifying premises is not mainly used for a Schedule 1 use, the premises may still meet the qualifying event criteria – see scope (events) factsheet.

3. The premises meet the thresholds for individuals present at the premises.

The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 requires an assessment of the number of individuals who can be reasonably expected to be in attendance at qualifying premises. It will be necessary to determine the greatest number of individuals reasonably expected to be present at the same time, from time to time, on the premises in connection with one or more Schedule 1 uses.

Further information about how to assess the numbers of individuals at premises can be found in the assessment of the number of individuals expected to be present factsheet.

This assessment (alongside the other qualifying criteria) will determine whether premises are qualifying premises and whether they are standard tier premises or enhanced tier premises:

• Subject to other conditions, to be qualifying premises 200 or more individuals (including staff) must be reasonably expected to be present at the same time, from time to time, in connection with one or more uses specified in Schedule 1 to the Act.
• Those premises will be standard tier premises except for where 800 or more individuals (including staff) may be reasonably expected, in which case they will be enhanced tier premises, unless stated otherwise.

4. The premises are not excluded premises.

Schedule 2 to the Act excludes certain premises from the requirements of the Act:

• Houses of Parliament, devolved legislatures and devolved governments.

• Parks, gardens, recreation grounds, and other open-air premises used for recreation, exercise or leisure (only applies where premises do not have measures in place to secure or check that access is restricted).
• Transport premises that are already subject to relevant existing legislative requirements to consider and mitigate threats.

Part of a building

The definition of a building includes “part of a building”. Some premises may have buildings that are primarily used for uses that are not listed in Schedule 1 to the Act but have a separate part of the building that is used for a Schedule 1 purpose. The separate part of the building may be in scope of the Act if the other criteria are also met.

For example, a building includes a large factory and a shop selling some of the factory’s produce. The principal use of the building is as a factory – this is not listed as a Schedule 1 use and would therefore not be in the scope of the Act. However, part of the building is used as a shop, which is a Schedule 1 use. Therefore, the part of the building used as a shop could be in the scope of the Act if the other criteria are met.

A group of buildings

There are many premises which could consist of “a group of buildings” used for a Schedule 1 use/uses. Common examples could include buildings (and associated land) at a university campus, hospital complex or a hotel, spa and event centre complex.

Indicative factors that define a group of buildings could include that they are in close geographical proximity, that they share a principal Schedule 1 use, or that the responsible person is the same for all or most of the buildings in the group.  

Premises within other premises

There are examples of premises that are in scope of the Act which have multiple units within them - for example, a shopping centre or an entertainment complex which includes cinemas, restaurants and arcades. All of these would usually have separate responsible persons.

If smaller premises within larger premises meet the criteria to be in scope of the Act, the smaller premises themselves will be qualifying premises in addition to the larger premises. Where smaller (qualifying or non-qualifying) premises are within larger qualifying premises, co-ordination and co-operation requirements may apply. 

Premises subject to different thresholds

Whether premises are in the standard or enhanced tier will depend on the number of individuals reasonably expected to be present at the same time, from time to time, in connection with one or more Schedule 1 uses.

However, there are types of premises in scope of the Act that are always treated as standard tier premises if they meet the qualifying premises criteria, even if 800 or more individuals (including staff) are reasonably expected to be present at the same time, from time to time. This applies to premises used for childcare, primary or secondary education, further education or as a places of worship. This is sometimes referred to as the “special consideration”.   

1. The Act was granted Royal Assent on 3 April 2025, but these requirements have not yet been commenced. This means that they are not yet in force and so do not need to be complied with until brought into force by regulations. ↩