Evacuation, Invacuation and Lockdown: What the Four Procedures Mean on Your Floor Plan

The standard-tier duty under Martyn's Law is four procedures: evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication, in place so far as is reasonably practicable, with the people who have a role in them knowing what it is. Written as a policy they are a page each. Walked through the building they are a hundred small facts about doors, stairs, keys and signs, and that is where most plans fall down. This article takes each procedure in turn and asks what it needs from the floor plan.

Evacuation: which way out, and to where

Fire evacuation is already drilled, but an attack is different: the threat may be at the main entrance, the normal muster point may be the wrong place, and people may need to be moved away rather than gathered. For each part of the building, the plan needs at least two ways out and a muster point for each, with the distance, the door type, whether it is alarmed or locked out of hours and what is on the other side. Mark every final exit and gate, photograph it from both sides, and record who can open it.

Invacuation: bringing people in

If the threat is outside, the safest place may be inside. Invacuation needs spaces that can take the numbers, away from glazing and external doors, reachable without crossing the threat, and a means of getting people there quickly. On the plan that means identifying the shelter spaces, their capacity, the routes to them from the entrances and the open areas, and the doors that must be closed behind people as they arrive.

Lockdown: what can be secured, by whom

Lockdown is the procedure that most often exists on paper only, because it depends on hardware nobody has checked. For every room or zone that might be locked down, record whether it can be secured from the inside, with what, whether the glazing is a weakness, and who holds the key, fob or code at every hour the premises are open. Partial lockdown, securing one wing while another evacuates, is common in schools and hospitals and needs its own routes.

Communication: telling people what to do

The fourth procedure runs through the other three. Where are the radios, the PA points and the phones, who speaks, what do they say, and how do people who cannot hear a PA, or who are in the car park, get the message? Mark the comms points on the plan with the rest, and write the words in advance.

Putting it on the plan

Take the floor plan, or a drawn plan if you do not have one, and mark four layers: exits and muster points, shelter spaces and the routes to them, lockable zones and who holds the means, and comms points. Then walk it with the people who will use it. The gaps appear immediately: the fire exit that opens onto the car park where the threat is, the shelter room with a glass wall, the lockable door whose key is in an office that locks at five.

Training without a consultant on site every time

The Act does not mandate training, but the Home Office is clear that anyone with a role must know it. The problem is turnover: stewards, agency staff, supply teachers, bank nurses and Sunday volunteers. A 360 tour of the building with the four layers marked, and each procedure shown as a route from where the person is standing, is something a new starter can walk through on a phone before their first shift, and something the whole team can rehearse around a table. It is also a dated record of what the building was and what the procedures were, which is what an inspector or an insurer will ask for. That is what a Martyn's Law readiness tour is; the fire and rescue familiarisation tour we built for a new building shows the method. For the law itself, see Martyn's Law explained for venues.

General information, not legal or security advice. Your procedures should be yours, or your adviser's; the Home Office guidance on ProtectUK is the reference.

Questions people ask

What is the difference between invacuation and lockdown?

Invacuation moves people into the building, or deeper into it, away from a threat outside. Lockdown secures the building or part of it so that a threat cannot get in or move around. A site may do one, the other or both in sequence, which is why each needs its own route and its own trigger.

Do we need new doors and locks?

Not necessarily. The standard tier asks for procedures, not equipment. The first job is to know what the existing doors do: which can be secured, from which side, with what, and who has the means. That knowledge often changes the procedure more than new hardware would.

How often should we rehearse?

The Act does not say. A sensible pattern is a walk-through at every induction, a tabletop before each season or term, and a live exercise at least yearly, with the dates recorded.