Capacity, Occupancy, and Crowd Size: Three Numbers, Three Rules
Your licensing capacity is not your fire occupancy is not your Martyn's Law number. Here is how to know which one to use, when.
Most venues have three capacity numbers and only one team member who can tell you which is which at 11pm on a Saturday.
The numbers are not interchangeable. Using the wrong one in front of a licensing board, a fire officer, or the SIA gets expensive fast.
1. Fire occupancy
Calculated by your fire risk assessor. Based on square metreage per person, the width and number of exits, the type of activity, and the time it would take to clear the building in an emergency.
This is the safety ceiling. If you put more people in the building than the fire number, you have broken the law regardless of anything else.
- Calculated by: your fire risk assessor, following the Fire Safety Act and local guidance
- Where it lives: your fire risk assessment
- Used for: emergency planning, insurance, building control
Fire occupancy does not know about tables, bars, stages, or queues. It is a raw "how many bodies can this building hold and still evacuate in time" figure.
2. Licensing capacity
Set as a condition of your premises licence. Sometimes identical to the fire number. Often lower, because the licensing authority has accounted for bar access, dance floor density, bathroom provision, or noise.
- Calculated by: your licensing authority when the licence is granted or varied
- Where it lives: your premises licence, as a condition
- Used for: door counts, dispersal planning, review hearings
Breach your licensing capacity and you are looking at a licence review, not just a fine. This is the number your door team needs to know.
3. Martyn's Law capacity
Introduced by the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025. Counts every individual reasonably expected to be present at the same time - including staff.
- 200 to 799: Standard tier duties
- 800 or more: Enhanced tier duties
- Under 200: Out of scope (but best practice still applies)
This number is usually higher than your licensing capacity because it includes staff. A venue licensed for 450 with 20 staff on a busy night is a 470-person Martyn's Law venue.
The common mistake
A pub tells the council its capacity is 180. The same pub tells the insurer its capacity is 260. The same pub is sitting 220 people at a birthday function and has 12 staff on.
If the fire number is 260, you are legal on fire. If the licensing condition is 180, you are 40 over your licensed capacity. If your Martyn's Law count is 232, you are in scope for standard tier duties you may not know you have.
One building. Three numbers. Three different obligations.
What to do this week
- Pull the three numbers. Fire assessment, premises licence, Martyn's Law count (licensing capacity plus maximum staff). Write them on one page.
- Give the number on your door clicker a name. Most door teams count toward the licensing number. Make sure that is explicit in their training.
- Review staff headcount. If you are close to a Martyn's Law threshold, know whether a busy night tips you over.
- Don't assume the three will stay equal. A layout change, a new bar, a marquee addition, or a new premises licence condition can change one without touching the others.
Holocron stores your three capacity numbers against your venue profile and flags the one that matters for each compliance task. Incident logs cite the right number. Reports export with the right number. Staff see the right number.