Why Martyn’s Law asks something different of a local authority – Feature
For local authorities, Martyn’s Law is not just another compliance exercise. Lloyd Major, Founder and CEO of Halo Solutions, argues that councils need shared standards, reliable audit trails and real-time coordination to manage the growing pressure on public safety teams.
A single-venue operator masters one building, one crew, one control room, show after show. A local authority doesn’t get that luxury — the same team might run a community festival one month and a headline act the next, delivered by anyone from seasoned professionals to first-time volunteers. In a new piece for Open Access Government, our founder and CEO Lloyd Major argues that this variation is exactly why local authorities need something a single-venue operator never has to build: a shared standard that holds regardless of who’s running the event.
Lloyd draws on nearly a decade working alongside Luton Borough Council — Halo’s first-ever paying client, back in 2018 — to make the case. Luton International Carnival, marking its 50th anniversary this year, is the clearest proof point: real-time coordination across sixteen-plus partner agencies helped reunite three missing people within minutes rather than hours, among 21 emergencies the Carnival’s teams managed through Halo that year. The same system supported Luton and Bedford’s Covid marshals through 2020, the kind of local effort the Prime Minister himself singled out at the time.
The piece also digs into where Martyn’s Law and the incoming Hillsborough Law actually differ — one sets a baseline for audit trails, the other raises what’s specifically expected of a public authority on top of it — and offers a practical starting point for any council unsure where its own exposure sits.
