Lockdown procedure: planning a lockdown, running it and practising it with a drill

01

What a lockdown procedure is, and where the duty comes from

The Home Office's statutory guidance on the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 defines it in paragraph 7.41 as "a procedure used to secure the premises, preventing people from entering or leaving the premises or event to keep people away from danger". The Department for Education's lockdown template for schools and colleges puts it in a school's terms: lockdown "is necessary when children and staff need to be locked within buildings for their own safety", in "an emergency situation such as a hostile intruder, terrorist attack or other criminal activity".

No single UK law is called the lockdown law. The duty to have one comes from several places:

• Every employer. Regulation 8 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires every employer to "establish and where necessary give effect to appropriate procedures to be followed in the event of serious and imminent danger to persons at work". Where violence or intrusion is a real risk, lockdown is one of those procedures.
• Shared buildings and contractors. Regulation 11 of the same Regulations requires employers sharing a workplace to co-operate and co-ordinate their measures, and regulation 12 requires a host to give contractors' employers comprehensible information about its risks and the measures it takes, and their staff appropriate instructions, so contract cleaning and security staff need to know the host's lockdown signal and their part in it.
• Schools and colleges in England. The DfE's school and college security guidance says it is important for schools and colleges "to have a policy and plan in place to manage and respond to security related incidents", alongside safeguarding and the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
• Martyn's Law. Section 5 of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 requires appropriate public protection procedures at qualifying premises and events, so far as is reasonably practicable, and section 5(3)(c) names one: procedures "for preventing individuals entering or leaving the premises or event". It is not yet in force.

The Security Industry Authority, the regulator, says on its page Understanding Martyn's Law and the SIA's role as regulator that "It is expected that the Act will come into force in spring 2027". Paragraph 4.38 of the statutory guidance puts schools and colleges that can reasonably expect 200 or more people, staff included, at the same time in the standard tier. The guide to Martyn's Law covers the tiers.

02

Full, partial, zonal and dynamic lockdown: the kinds to plan for

Lockdown is not one action. Paragraph 7.43 of the statutory guidance separates a full lockdown, which "prevents people from entering or exiting the premises", from a partial lockdown, which locks only certain entry and exit points "while keeping others operational, for example, allowing people to escape in a safe direction". For larger or more complex premises, its figure 9 adds four terms:

• One-way lockdown: prevents entry but allows people to exit.
• Two-way lockdown: restricts both entry and exit.
• Partial lockdown: only certain doors, such as entrances near the incident, are locked.
• Zonal lockdown: pre-designated areas within the premises are locked down.

Dynamic lockdown is another name for the same thing. ProtectUK's Tactic RB3: Ensure that lockdown procedures are known, tried and tested describes lockdown as "locking doors and other physical barriers (such as turnstiles) to restrict entry to and/or exit from a site, or one or more zones within a site" and says it is sometimes referred to as dynamic lockdown, with two aims: slowing an attacker's progress, and stopping people walking unawares into danger. It warns that locking down while people are still arriving can leave some locked outside and more exposed.

Lockdown sits beside the other procedures, and a plan says how they connect. Invacuation (the DfE calls it shelter) brings people inside or to a safer area, often first, so nobody is left outside when the doors lock; paragraph 7.42 of the statutory guidance says an invacuation may come before a lockdown and an evacuation may follow one once it is safe. Evacuation is the exception with an intruder: the DfE template says a "blind" evacuation, when nobody knows where the intruder is, may put people in more danger than staying inside. Plan too for an attacker who starts a fire, when staying locked in may be the greater danger; that is why communication, the signal and the all-clear, has to say clearly which procedure is under way.

03

What a written lockdown plan should contain

At Martyn's Law standard tier there is no legal requirement to write the procedures down, but paragraph 7.32 of the statutory guidance says the responsible person "should" prepare a document, and that compliance may be hard to demonstrate in an SIA inspection without one. Drawing on the DfE template, paragraphs 7.44 and 7.45 of the guidance and ProtectUK's Tactic RB3, a plan should cover:

1. The signals. The lockdown alarm and a separate stand-down or all-clear. For larger premises paragraph 7.49 says the instructions for a lockdown should differ from those for an evacuation, so the signal must not sound like the fire alarm.
2. Who decides. Who can start a lockdown, with deputies. The DfE template names an incident control officer, deputies and a communications officer, each with an emergency number.
3. When to use it. The situations in which lockdown is the best response, for internal and external threats alike, and which kind fits each.
4. Every way in. All access and egress points, public and back-of-house: roller shutters, loading bays, turnstiles, gates and opening windows, not only doors.
5. How each is secured, and by whom. Automated or manual locks, internal fire shutters for a zonal lockdown, external shutters worked from inside, and whether lifts can be disabled. Paragraph 7.25 says the Act demands no new equipment, though changing how doors lock or where shutter controls sit may be reasonably practicable.
6. The safe rooms. Rooms that can be secured from within, with capacity. The DfE lists classrooms, the hall, the sports hall and offices.
7. Communication. How the alarm reaches every area, with backups. The DfE says to use silent communication where possible: two-way radios, classroom telephones, mobile phones, instant messaging and email.
8. Neighbours. How the lockdown is co-ordinated with neighbouring premises or the wider complex.
9. Reversal. How lockdown is lifted quickly if fire breaks out, and handed over to evacuation when the police say so.
10. An alternative place of safety. A pre-arranged venue if the site has to be left, such as a partner school or leisure centre.
11. Everyone else on site. Parents and signed-in visitors, whom the DfE action plan names, and contractors and cleaning staff working in the building.
12. Housekeeping. The DfE template says items that could be used as weapons, such as kitchen implements, sports equipment, tools and cleaning products, should be locked away when not in use.

Paragraph 7.58 of the guidance adds that a document for staff setting out the procedures and their roles will probably be appropriate, perhaps as a briefing, a quick reference guide or a credit-card-sized prompt card. The DfE says "The local police will be best placed to give advice on lockdown procedures where there is a threat to your school or college."

04

The lockdown procedure, step by step

The action plan in the DfE lockdown template is written for schools, but the order works in an office, a library or a shopping centre. Its steps, in order:

1. Sound the alert and activate lockdown procedures immediately.
2. Dial 999.
3. Direct all children, staff, parents and signed-in visitors to the nearest safe place, which may depend on what and where the risk is.
4. Secure rooms and take action to increase protection from attack: lock and barricade doors and windows.
5. Close windows and blinds.
6. Turn off lights, fans and mobile air conditioning units, which reduces noise and the risk of exposure to a chemical or biological attack.
7. Hide: sit on the floor, under desks and away from windows.
8. Stay as silent as possible, with mobile devices on silent; instructions can be written on a whiteboard or screen as long as the intruder cannot see them.
9. Make sure everyone knows an exit point in case the intruder gets in.
10. If possible, check for anyone missing or injured.
11. Keep doors and windows locked and stay inside until the all-clear is given, or the emergency services say to evacuate.

Paragraph 7.44 says a lockdown may be preceded by a communication procedure, so people are moved away from danger before the doors lock. ProtectUK says the integrity of the lockdown should be monitored; one way is for someone to confirm by radio which doors and shutters are secure.

05

The lockdown drill: practising it, and what to record

A plan nobody has rehearsed tends to fail at the first door. The DfE says: "You should regularly test policies and handling plans. Practice drills will identify where improvements can be made". ProtectUK says lockdown procedures "should be developed, tested, and refined to ensure that they will protect people as intended", and that keeping records of what the lockdown aims to achieve and why, how it will be implemented and the outcomes of tests and rehearsals will help refine it. Under Martyn's Law, paragraphs 7.51 and 7.52 of the statutory guidance require no particular course, but the staff who carry out a procedure must know it and their role, and if they are not informed or trained it is likely to be difficult to show that appropriate procedures are in place. For schools and colleges the DfE adds that "All staff should receive appropriate security training relevant to the nature of the risk your school or college may encounter".

None of this guidance sets a fixed number of lockdown drills a year, so the plan states its own interval and keeps to it. Paragraph 7.29 of the statutory guidance says procedures should be reviewed periodically, perhaps annually, taking account of changes to the premises and how they are used. A drill can be small: a tabletop walk-through with the incident team, one zone locking down while the rest carries on, or a full site drill on the real signal. In a school the aim is that pupils know the signal and where to go.

A useful lockdown drill record shows:

• the date, time and part of the site involved, and the scenario;
• whether the signal reached every area, including toilets, plant rooms, the kitchen and the playing field;
• how long it took for every door, shutter and gate on the list to be confirmed secure, and which were not;
• whether visitors, contractors and cleaning staff knew what to do, and whether the stand-down was understood;
• what went wrong, the action agreed, who owns it and when it was done;
• who ran the drill.

A record that finds the same side door unsecured three drills running shows the drill is held but the door is never fixed.

06

Where the record fails, and what SiteClara does about it

Lockdown plans fail in the gap between the document and the doors. The plan relies on a roller shutter that has not closed fully since the summer. The drill found a sounder nobody hears in the plant room, and the action sits in a debrief note no one owns. The evening round says "all secure" in the occurrence book, written once at the end of the night.

SiteClara records the routine checks that a lockdown depends on, at the place they are made. A printed QR poster, with an optional NFC tag behind it, goes at each checkpoint: the external doors and shutters on the lockdown list, the gates, the safe rooms, the control room. Whoever does the round scans the code or taps the tag on their own phone, with no app to install, and marks the scheduled check done or explains what stopped them; the time and the named person are recorded, with a photo when one is asked for. A fault such as the shutter that will not close can be reported at that tag and stays on the team's list of jobs until someone closes it, and a supervisor can escalate it to the building manager.

The supervisor sees what was due, done and missed, records the reason a check was missed, and approves a daily report that goes to nominated managers or client contacts the next morning. That gives the site a working record, made at the time, that the doors and shutters the plan relies on were checked.

07

Questions people ask

Do schools have to practise lockdown drills?

No UK law names a lockdown drill, but the DfE's school and college security guidance tells schools and colleges in England: "You should regularly test policies and handling plans." Every employer must also have procedures for serious and imminent danger under regulation 8 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

Why are schools doing lockdown drills in the UK?

Because the Department for Education's school and college security guidance asks schools and colleges in England to have "a policy and plan in place to manage and respond to security related incidents" and says "Practice drills will identify where improvements can be made". Martyn's Law, expected from spring 2027, will add a legal duty for schools that can reasonably expect 200 or more people, staff included, at the same time, which paragraph 4.38 of the statutory guidance on the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 puts in the standard tier.

What is a partial lockdown?

Paragraph 7.43 of the statutory guidance on the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 describes a partial lockdown as locking only certain entry and exit points "while keeping others operational", for example so people can escape in a safe direction, where a full lockdown "prevents people from entering or exiting the premises".

What does dynamic lockdown mean?

ProtectUK's Tactic RB3: Ensure that lockdown procedures are known, tried and tested describes lockdown as "locking doors and other physical barriers (such as turnstiles) to restrict entry to and/or exit from a site, or one or more zones within a site" and says it is sometimes referred to as dynamic lockdown. Its aims are to delay attackers and to stop people putting themselves into the attacker's path.

What do you do if you are in the toilet during a lockdown?

Follow the same steps as everyone else, in the nearest place you can secure. The DfE lockdown template for schools and colleges does not mention toilets, but its action plan says to go to the nearest safe place, lock and barricade doors, stay as silent as possible with mobile devices on silent, and remain inside until the all-clear is given or the emergency services say to evacuate.

08

Further reading, and a lockdown checklist to take away

For schools and colleges in England, the DfE's school and college security publications include the lockdown, shelter, evacuation and bomb threat templates and the debrief checklist. For any premises, ProtectUK's Tactic RB3 on lockdown procedures sets out the planning questions, and chapter 7 of the Home Office's statutory guidance on the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 explains the four public protection procedures and points to the National Protective Security Authority's lockdown guidance and animation.

Before the next drill, check that:

• the lockdown signal and all-clear are distinct from the fire alarm and reach every area;
• the plan names who can start a lockdown, and every member of staff and contractor knows the signal from a briefing or training;
• every door, shutter, gate and opening window is listed, with who secures each;
• the safe rooms lock from inside and hold the people expected;
• the plan says how lockdown is reversed in a fire;
• the doors and shutters are checked on a schedule, and faults are fixed rather than noted;
• the last drill's actions are closed, and the next drill is dated.