AIS Members will be familiar with Loss Prevention Standard LPS 1175: Requirements and testing procedures for the LPCB approval and listing of intruder resistant building components, strong points, security enclosures and free-standing barriers.  The less widely known Loss Prevention Standard LPS 1270: Requirements and testing procedures for the LPCB approval and listing of intruder resistant security glazing units was introduced in November 2010 to certify glass products in terms similar to those used in LPS 1175.

As such, LPS 1270 is of potential value to security surveyors in relation to the protection of e.g. valuables against a sustained attack (e.g. glass used in showcases out of business hours and glazing in timber doors).  In this respect the LPCB claims that LPS 1270 has a superior scope to EN356 (usually called up for cash screen applications) as being a more reliable method of rating glazing’s resistance to attack since EN356 does not permit the use of sharp tools that can easily cut interlayers within glass once the glazing has been impacted.

LPS 1270 was developed because it was considered the method for classifying the attack resistance of security glazing specified within the current European standard (BS EN 356: 2000) was incompatible with that employed within LPS 1175: Issue 7 Requirements and testing procedures for the LPCB approval and listing of intruder resistant building components, strong points, security enclosures and free-standing barriers. This was because:

· BS EN 356: 2000 does not classify glass according to its resistance to different levels of attack based on the tools and time available to an intruder.
· The tests contained within BS EN 356: 2000 do not evaluate the glass’s susceptibility to attacks involving the creation of small holes through which locking hardware may be manipulated ( such as panic bars and turn knobs) and/or protected items, such as items on display within shop windows or display cases, may be removed.
· Glazing materials rated to BS EN 356: 2000 that have previously been included within products and systems submitted for testing to LPS 1175: Issue 7 has undermined those product’s/system’s ability to offer intruder resistance commensurate with the security ratings sought to LPS 1175: Issue 7.

The LPS 1270 classification system contains three digits. Each digit describes the glazing’s resistance to creation of a different size of hole, as described in the table shown in the Standard.

More information is available from Richard Flint at LPCB (flintr@bre.co.uk).