Securing Your Perimeter: The Importance and Impact of LPS1175 Certified Security Fencing

The purpose of security fencing is simple: to help keep what’s inside safe and more secure, keep unwanted elements out, such as people, vehicles and even animals and it also helps to indicate where a property starts or ends (demarcation).

Any form of perimeter fencing can help to do this, but security-grade fencing is uniquely designed to help make it harder for intruders to enter a space, making it physically much more difficult to penetrate the fence and gain access.

Recent innovation in fencing standards means there are now several accreditations and certifications that can be achieved by security fencing products, helping drive up performance expectations whilst keeping an eye on the aesthetic designs available.

In this blog, we’re looking specifically at the work of the Loss Prevention Certification Board (LPCB) and the LPS1175 certification standard. We’ll explore how this applies to security fences to help you make better informed decisions about the style of perimeter fencing you need.

What is the LPCB

The Loss Prevention Certification Board (LPCB) is a globally recognised third-party certification body which delivers certainty and manages overs 16,500 listings in the renowned Red Book. LPCB has worked with industry and insurers for over 150 years to set the standards needed to ensure that fire and security products and services perform effectively.

Part of the remit of the LPCB is to set ‘Loss Prevention Standards (LPS)’ that the security and fire industries can use to test and certify the performance of products. It is these standards that can help ensure you are buying the right products for your needs that are safe, durable and compliant for insurance purposes.

About the LPS1175

The LPS1175 standard is focused on the physical security of intruder resistant building components, which includes strong-points, free standing barriers, security encloses any products that fall within these categories such as door shutters, fencing and key safes. While it’s essential to have effective detection, delay, and response measures in place to prevent forced entry attempts, the LPS1175 standard specifically emphasizes the importance of the delay element. It provides a reliable way to evaluate a product’s ability to delay an attack from a particular level of threat. LPS1175 assumes that an intruder will have a good level of understanding about how a security product works and is educated as to how it could be attacked.

The standard defines different threat levels based on the type of tools likely to be used by attackers, ranging from A (lighter, less invasive tools) through to H (high-powered equipment), as well as a numerical rating, indicating how long products are capable of delaying an intruder.

The matrix in the table depicts a classification of products based on tool kit resistance and delay obtained in minutes. In response to the rising accessibility of tools, the Loss Prevention Certification Board (LPCB) produced Issue 8 of the standard in January 2019. The SR references in the matrix are the old security ratings, which were the only classifications accessible in prior versions of LPS 1175. However, the new matrix method takes a more realistic approach to analysing and reducing hazards, giving users better accuracy and dependability in their assessments.

Applying LPS1175 to security fencing

Rigorous testing is applied to ensure products meet the necessary standard required to achieve LPS1175 certification, with over 95% of products failing at the first submission. A team of highly-trained specialists are involved in testing, which is designed to mimic the conditions in which a security fence would be attacked in the real world. This team of testers undertake a range of attacks on a product which will continue until each SR category is achieved or until it’s decided that the attack is ineffective.

A security fence could be subject to a whole range of attacks, from cutting and drilling with simple hand tools to high-power gas & electrical tools. The testing process looks at every possible scenario of attack to ensure it a product is tested vigorously. If a weakness is identified during any testing phase, a product will fail or be retested to see if it affects the SR rating achieved.

How certification is applied

Once a system has passed the testing phase, it is subject to periodic audits to ensure that product standards are maintained. It is this consistency of approach that has led to LPS1175 products being respected globally.

Every product that has LPS1175 certification is listed online in the LPCB ‘RedBook Live’ database. This list is controlled and maintained by the LPCB so is guaranteed to be accurate. Products are listed when certification is achieved and thorough and effective quality control procedures must be evidenced throughout the manufacturing process to ensure that the accredited standards continue to be met.

From guaranteed security performance to effective quality control and greater insurability, using LPS1175 certified products is increasingly the preferred choice for security fencing.

How does LPS1175 impact industries?

Any industry that has a degree of risk associated with intruders getting within the perimeter fencing should be thinking about LPS1175 certified products. It’s particularly suited to sectors like construction and manufacturing, where security implications combine with increased health and safety protocols to create a higher-risk environment.

With the latest update to LPS1175 (Issue 8), you can now choose products based on the delay the product provides against attacks and tool set independently, rather than a fixed combination of both. The new certification provides 48 possible combinations of threat and delay, including the layering of products, offering flexibility to create the most appropriate solutions for specific situations.

Key takeaways

When perimeter safety is important, it’s worth investing in certified fencing systems to help protect your buildings and property. Based on global security protocols and robust testing methodologies, independent certification offers far more than increased peace of mind; it has commercial advantages with insurance as well as ensuring reduced downtime as a result of a site attack, it delivers guaranteed performance standards and acts as a significant deterrent to unwanted intruders.