Secure By Design, or SBD, is an industry standard which many will have heard of. But for those not so familiar, or if you’re wanting to scrub up on the whole subject, this is the post for you.
Secure By Design is a police backed standard which promotes products which are designed in such a way to make life more difficult for would-be burglars. Well that’s my paraphrasing. This is the definition of SBD by the Police themselves:
Secured by Design focuses on crime prevention of homes and commercial premises and promotes the use of security standards for a wide range of applications and products.
The principles have been proven to achieve a reduction of crime risk by up to 75%, by combining minimum standards of physical security and well-tested principles of natural surveillance and defensible space.
Our objective is to reduce burglary and crime in the UK by designing out crime through physical security and processes.
Secure By Design was established in 1989 and is owned by ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers). They are dedicated on the design and security for new & refurbished homes, commercial premises and car parks as well as the acknowledgement of quality security products and crime prevention projects. Since 1989, companies in the window industry have been striving to design products which meet the SBD standard. Companies that do reach those standards are able to use this logo on their products and literature:
For those wondering what sort of tests are done to determine what makes the SBD grade, this link will point you to all that information: http://www.securedbydesign.com/professionals/standards_testing.aspx. But, to give you a taster:
BS: 7950, 1997
Specification for enhanced security performance of casements, tilt/turn windows for domestic applications
BS 7950 must be supported by performance standards relevant to the materials used:
- BS 4873, 2005 Specification for aluminium windows.
- BS 7412, 2007 Specification for plastic windows made from PVC-U extruded hollow profiles.
- BS 644-1, 2003 Wood windows. Specification for factory assembled windows – various types.
- BWF:TWAS Timber window accreditation scheme.
- BS 6510, 2005 Specification for steel windows, sills, window boards & doors.
- LPS 1270 (Draft) Burglary resistance of security glazing and glazing films. Based on LPS 1175, this standard enables specifiers to select glazing films that offer resistance to manual attack equivalent to the building products in which the glass or film is to be used
So, as you can see, you can’t just waltz into the SBD club! As well as this, products need to also be tested to PAS 24 standards which I’m sure you’ll all be very aware of.
A Secure By Design standard product is great if you’re a supplier or installer. The SBD marque holds a certain level of respect that the industry acknowledges. Not only that, it’s a marque that is recognised by the general public. When they see it they know that the product they are looking at has been rigorously tested and is a product the police force backs.
If you’re a manufacturer and think you have a product which meets SBD standards, you’ll need to get your product tested and then certified. So to help you out, this is the SBD list of UKAS accredited Test Houses:
Assa Abloy Test Laboratory www.assaabloy.co.uk
British Board of Agreement (BBA) www.bbacerts.co.uk
British Standards Institution (BSI) www.bsi-global.com
Buildings Research Establishment (BRE) www.bre.co.uk
Chiltern Dynamics Ltd www.chilterndynamics.co.uk
ERA, Grouphomesafe www.era-security.com
Exova Warringtonfire www.warringtonfire.net
Fullex Testing Services www.fullex-locks.com
Loss Prevention Certification Board (LPCB) www.brecertification.co.uk
Winkhaus Laboratories www.winkhaus.co.uk
Wintech Engineering Limited www.wintech-engineering.com
And here is the list of Certification Bodies:
BM TRADA Certification www.bmtrada.com
BRE Certification www.RedBookLive.com
British Board of Agrement (BBA) www.bbacerts.co.uk
BSI Group www.bsi.org.uk
British Woodworking Federation (BWF) www.bwf.org.uk
Build Check Certification www.buildcheck.co.uk
ER Certification www.er-certification.com
Exova Warringtonfire www.warringtonfire.net
UL International (UK) Ltd http://ul.com/uk
To sum up then, the Secure By Design standard is a highly sought after and rigorously tested, high quality security standard backed by ACPO which is only awarded to products which aim to prevent burglaries by the nature of their design. Hope I’ve managed to keep that as concise as possible. But if you want more information, you can go to their official website here: http://www.securedbydesign.com/index.aspx
This post has been written for Value Doors UK who are a Leeds based UK supplier and installer of high quality doors, many of which come with Secure By Design options. To find out more about those options or about Value Doors UK in general, please visit their website: http://www.valuedoors.co.uk/ or contacts them on 0800 955 0898.
We were members of this initiative for just over a year. It cost a lot of money to attain all the necessary accreditation and membership (thousands of pounds) and in that year it added not one bit of value to our business. None of our customers seemed remotely interested in it, it generally seems to be the commercial market who use it as another tick box exercise on their PQQs and as an SME we have shied away from these projects over the last few years due to the poor return and the nightmare fight to get paid. Having said… Read more »
You say “So, as you can see, you can’t just waltz into the SBD club” no your right you cannot but if you already have a BS 7950 or PAS 24 if you pay your Membership fee then you can just Waltz in, but all you get for your fee is a Badge! SBD is just a Quango and all it demonstrates is that your products have already passed an Enhanced Security Accreditation such as BS 7950 / PAS 24, and then you have sent off a big value cheque along with evidence you already have an Accredited Security standard,… Read more »
Many MACO products are SBD approved and many contracts ask for this certification, at MACO UK we provide free in-house type testing to BS7950 now PAS23 and PAS24 to all our customers, this in turn helps our customers ensure their products are safe and secure and up to standard. It isnt cheap but for MACO and our customers its a really important tool.
Have a question about MACO products that are SBD approved, industry standards or general info please feel free to contact us. enquiry@macouk.net
I agree with Chris. What a load of rubbish. If you’ve got the certificates, you just write a cheque to an ex-policeman (who has a cushy job to supplement his pension) with ACPO, and you’ve just spent another £10k on a badge.
“Jobs and money for the boys”. But if you don’t tick that box, no chance in the PQQs.
Most customers probably haven’t heard if this scheme,as previous posts stated it costs thousands of pounds,if I remember products only need to last 3 mins under attack,using certain tools some if the tools stated wouldn’t open a kids piggy bank never mind destroy locks