Industry Update – BS EN 17235:2024 Permanent anchor devices and safety hooks – BS EN 795 Personal fall protection equipment. Anchor devices
BS EN 17235:2024 was finally published on 30th September 2024 and harmonised on 9th February 2026 under the Construction Products Regulations and provides a pathway to successfully testing and CE marking of fall protection products that are installed permanently into structures.
Prior to 2010 permanently installed fall protection products were CE marked to BS EN 795: 1997 Personal fall protection equipment — Anchor devices, harmonised under the PPE Directive 89/686/EEC. In April 2010 a test case took place to decide whether BS EN 795 Class A (eyebolts) products should or should not be classified as PPE. The decision of the court was that Class A products should not be PPE and that they should come within the scope of the Construction Products Directive 89/106/EEC.
In March 2011 a British Safety Industry Federation (BSIF) Test and Certification Association meeting took place at which the Dept of Business Innovation & Skill (BIS) was present.
At that meeting it was decided that:
Notified Bodies would no longer carry out CE marking assessment on new BS EN 795 products within classes A (eyebolts), C (flexible lifelines), and D (rigid lifelines)
Existing CE approval certificates for products within classes A, C and D would be maintained by the Notified Bodies, unless specific instructions were received from BIS to remove approvals.
Since 2010 reputable manufacturers of such products have continued to test their products to the requirements of EN 795 & CEN/TS 16415 Personal fall protection equipment — Anchor devices — Recommendations for anchor devices for use
by more than one person simultaneously, as well as the Magenta Books 1 & 2 of the Advisory Committee for Roofsafety (ACR). Unlike EN 795 the magenta book required manufacturers to test their products in substrates that they subsequently approved their product to be installed into or onto.
In 2017 BSI produced BS 8610:2017 Personal fall protection equipment – Anchor systems — Specification, and this provided manufacturers in the UK with a standard that supported products being tested in range of substrates which the manufacturer approved their product to be installed into or onto.
BS EN 17235:2024 has now been published and harmonised. Manufacturers now have eighteen months to test and CE mark their product against this harmonised standard via a notified body.
The eighteen-month transition period will provide time for the Notified Bodies to apply and be approved to conduct such testing and issue certification. This transition period also gives manufacturers time to review their products and complete any required re-engineering in order to fulfil the new standards requirements.
One of the new requirements is to statically test to destruction or to a maximum of 27kN for Kit C devices due to the high static forces that can arise in these types of kits. Manufacturers would select a substrate (possibly concrete) and test in different configurations dynamically and statically. A minimum of three static tests of each configuration is required to provide sufficient data to satisfy calculation of the characteristic strength value in accordance with EN 1990. The Notified Body would then take the worst performing configuration and test this configuration in further substrates as required by the manufacture for CE marking and inclusion in their Declaration of Performance.
The Construction Products Regulations require harmonised standards to be written about the product alone and do not include further information regarding the test procedure that will ensure repeatability between notifiable bodies. Therefore, a non-harmonised standard in support of EN 17235:2024 is being drafted to include content such as:-
• Information on application of anchor devices which could not be included in EN17235,
• Information for installation,
• Information for inspection,
• Information -on competency for installation,
• Information for user instructions
• Design criteria/guidance,
• Additional test information, e.g., test sample can be bigger, roof sample test rig could be framed,
• Examples of product marking,
• Examples of evaluation (avoiding factors of safety on factors of safety).
The supporting standard is essential to provide further guidance and information for both notified bodies and manufacturers.
The revision of BS EN 795 is now well under way and this standard has now completed two public consultation periods and all comments that were raised have been responded to and addressed appropriately within the standard.
The major change is that this standard is for temporary anchor devices only, whereas BS EN 17235 covers permanent anchor devices. Changes to the types of anchor device include removal of Types, A, B, C, D & E from the standard and introducing a Type 1 (originally type B) and a Type 2 (originally type E) anchor device. Combinations that include the original type C & D will be captured in the test requirements for type 1 and type 2 anchor devices.
The revision of BS EN 795 is now with CEN for translation (English, French & German) and review by the Harmonised Standards (HAS) Consultant. Once this review has been completed the standard will be subject to a formal vote by CEN members.
The earliest publication of BS EN 795 is likely to be Q1 of 2027 followed by harmonisation later in 2027.
BS EN 795 provides a product standard for temporary single user anchor devices. Once the review by the HAS Consultant is complete, the working group will commence revision of CEN TS 16415 for temporary anchor devices for multiple users.
The implications of the publication and harmonisation of BS EN 17235 and the revision of BS EN 795 are that BS 8610 and BS 7883 may require revision as National standards cannot conflict with European Standards.
It is recommended that -manufacturers engage with Notified Bodies to review their anchor device testing and certification and complete any additional testing before the end of the transition period on 9th August 2027.
Graham Willmott BSIF (HSG) Chair & BSI PH5 Committee Member
Tim Bissett BSI PH5 CEN/TC 128/SC9/WG1 Liaison
June 2026