Martyn’s Law is already reshaping how UK venues think about preparedness. Officially, it’s the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, and its focus is on procedures that reduce harm: evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication.
That last word is the one people tend to underestimate. Communication is the point where a plan either becomes operational or falls apart. A lot of people’s first question is still, “What do we need to install?” It’s understandable, but it’s not the right starting point. Martyn’s Law isn’t a product law. It’s a preparedness law.
The system conversation only becomes relevant when your procedures depend on reaching lots of people quickly, clearly, and in a controlled way.
That’s where Public Address and Voice Alarm (PA/VA) comes in, and where the phrase emergency sound systems can be helpful, not as the name of the kit, but as a way to describe what a properly designed PA/VA system can do in an incident.
BSI has been consulting on a new British Standard Code of Practice for the use of audio systems in emergency communication, with Martyn’s Law-style incidents and evolving resident messaging in high-rise residential buildings both in view. This new standard should bring clearer, more consistent expectations around planning, intelligibility, testing and day-to-day operation.
PA/VA is the system, emergency sound systems describe the role
In the UK, PA/VA is the term people specify and recognise. It’s the system category that covers intelligible announcements, live and pre-recorded messaging, controlled priorities, and a structured approach to delivering instructions across a building or site.
When we use the phrase emergency sound systems in this context, we’re talking about function. We mean an audio solution that can broadcast life-protecting information to defined areas during an emergency, so people get instructions they can actually follow.
Why communication is different in a hostile incident
A fire alarm can tell people something is wrong, but it can’t tell them what to do next. In a hostile incident, that difference is critical.
There are scenarios where you do not want an immediate, generic “evacuate” response, because the safest action might be to move away from a threat, stay put, or lock down a specific zone while other areas disperse. In those moments, the ability to deliver clear, situation-specific instructions is the difference between crowd movement and crowd control.
This is the point where PA/VA stops being “the announcement system” and becomes the venue’s emergency sound system in practice: it’s the channel that delivers instructions people can hear, understand and act on.
What BS EN 50849 adds to the conversation
Treat BS EN 50849 as a technical communication benchmark. It’s concerned with the performance and test approach for systems intended to broadcast life-protecting information in an emergency. It’s useful because it reinforces a straightforward idea: emergency audio only helps if you can rely on it to perform when conditions become challenging.
That matters for any venue leaning on PA/VA as part of its emergency procedures. Once your plan depends on audio instructions, you need more than “it’s loud enough on a good day”. You need defined coverage, intelligibility, resilience, monitoring, and the ability to test and evidence performance.
It’s also worth being clear about scope and language. Standards help you specify and verify. They don’t, on their own, prove preparedness. Martyn’s Law readiness is ultimately about whether your procedures work in the real world, with real people, under pressure.
When a PA/VA system genuinely strengthens Martyn’s Law readiness
Not every site needs the same answer. Some smaller premises will meet their duty through proportionate procedures, staff briefings and simple communication methods. For larger, more complex sites, communication usually needs reach and control that ad hoc methods can’t deliver consistently.
A good rule of thumb is this: if your plan relies on delivering different instructions to different areas, or managing movement in phases rather than sending everyone to the same exit at the same time, then you are already in PA/VA territory. At that point, the question becomes whether your PA/VA system is capable of acting as an emergency sound system, and whether its design reflects your actual procedures.
That means thinking beyond the rack and the loudspeakers. It means agreeing what you would say for evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and controlled dispersal, deciding who is authorised to speak, building a message strategy that matches the building’s zones, and then testing it in scenarios rather than just running a functional checklist.
Pre-recorded messages deserve specific attention here. A library of ready-to-go messages for each scenario, covering evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and controlled dispersal, agreed in advance and triggerable within seconds from wherever your team manages the incident, means the first clear instruction never depends on someone finding the right words under pressure. Live announcements still have their place as a situation develops, but the opening message should already exist before anyone needs it.
If you can’t describe how you’d use the system in those scenarios, you don’t yet have an emergency sound system capability, even if you have speakers in the ceiling.
Evidence and upkeep: the part that makes it real
Martyn’s Law isn’t just about having a document. It’s about being able to show that procedures are in place, that people understand them and that they’ll actually work when the moment comes. For PA/VA, that translates into the practical things rushed projects tend to miss.
You need commissioning that proves people can hear and understand the system in the spaces that matter. You need operator training that reflects how your team will really make decisions on site, not generic handover slides. You need maintenance and fault management, with records that show you find and fix issues, not park them until the next major refurb.
How Baldwin Boxall supports PA/VA that’s fit for purpose
At Baldwin Boxall, we design and support PA/VA systems for sites where intelligible, controlled communication is part of the life-safety strategy. That includes the engineering of the platform itself, but also the parts that make it operational: system design support, commissioning, operator training and ongoing maintenance.
A properly implemented PA/VA system is more than a collection of products. It uses equipment that has been independently assessed against recognised international standards, while also bringing professional design, installation and commissioning into the process. Regular testing and maintenance then help ensure the system continues to perform as intended throughout its working life. It also gives building operators access to an established network of experienced professionals who understand how to deliver communication systems designed to support life safety.
If you’re using PA/VA as the channel that delivers your emergency instructions, it needs to perform as an emergency sound system in practice. That means it has to be dependable, monitored, and properly integrated into the way you’ll run the building during an incident. It also means you need confidence in the evidence trail, because preparedness is much easier to demonstrate when your system, your procedures and your records tell the same story.
If Martyn’s Law has prompted a review, a sensible next step is to look at your communication procedure and ask one direct question: if you had to deliver clear instructions to the right areas within seconds, from wherever you’d actually manage an incident, could your current PA/VA arrangement do it reliably, and could you prove it? If the answer is uncertain, that’s the point where we can help you turn intent into something practical and testable.
