Could PAS24 doors fall short of PartQ?
14th June 2016

“Lack of clarity, continuous testing and third-party accreditation, could mean thousands of PAS24:2012 accredited doors fitted in the UK fall short of Part Q.”

That is the warning from. Sliders UK Chairman Ian Longbottom who says it fails to safeguard product quality because it doesn’t oblige fabricators to independently assess quality management systems or to ensure that specifications are met consistently.

He explained: “It’s all about the ‘golden sample’ –you only need to prove that you can manufacture to a set standard once to ‘achieve’ PAS24:2012.

“We remain concerned that over time we will find fabricators stating that a product is PAS24:2012 based on a single assessment or system house accreditation. This won’t reflect possible hardware changes and there will be no control on quality or independent testing to ensure that those specifications don’t impact on performance.”

This, he says is a key difference between PAS24:2012 and Secured by Design, which places a requirement on fabricators to be able to evidence controls on quality and to undergo independent third-party assessment.

 “It demonstrably shows that a product is fully ‘fit for purpose” he concluded, “unlike Document Q, which only prescribes that a supplier underwrites his own assurance that a product has passed the security element of the testing only.”

Ian concluded: “There is a perception that a PAS24:2012 door puts a tick in all of the boxes in the same way as SBD does but there are some really quite significant differences the most notable of which are requirements for independent testing and safeguards on quality.

“We don’t believe for a moment that anyone would deliberately mislead industry colleagues or end users but if products fall short of specifications over time, installers may find themselves fighting it out with their suppliers as to where liabilities sit. Secured by Design accredited products take away all of that risk.”

www.sliders-uk.com