PAS 13: The Code of Practice for Safety Barriers
The official best practice for safety barriers and traffic management in industrial facilities.
What is PAS 13?
PAS stands for Publicly Available Specification and is an official document produced by the British Standards Institution (BSI). A PAS provides trusted, independent guidelines on best practices when using a product or process.
PAS 13 is the global code of practice for industrial safety barriers. It is designed to help organizations protect people, equipment, and infrastructure in busy industrial environments.
PAS 13 has two key sections:
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The first section guides Health and Safety and Operations leaders on the correct application of safety barriers in high-traffic facilities such as warehouses, distribution centers, and manufacturing plants.
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The second section standardizes how safety barriers should be tested for impact performance, durability, and strength, and how those results must be documented in a transparent and verifiable format for customers.
PAS 13 remains the only globally recognized code of practice for industrial safety barrier systems. It provides the most reliable guidance to improve safety, reduce risk, and enhance traffic management across industrial environments in the United States and around the world.
Why was PAS 13 Created?
Currently, there is no formal safety standard for the use of safety barriers. Therefore, company owners can take liberties with the levels of site protection they offer. This can seriously impact the safety of workers in those facilities, as well as create potential risks to infrastructure, assets, and production.
That makes the need for safety standards even more important. PAS 13 is the first step towards creating recognized guidelines for workplace safety, to better protect workers and companies from potential hazards. A-SAFE is incredibly proud to have been part of the steering group that helped make PAS 13 possible, and we continue to strive for more accountability and transparency in the world of workplace safety.
PAS 13 was created and published by the British Standards Institution in association with the Health and Safety Executive. The BSI worked with a steering group made up of several high-profile blue-chip companies, including Jaguar Land Rover, DHL, Nestles, MARS and A-SAFE. These companies were able to offer first-hand experience of safety across a range of industries, to create a consistent and transferable set of guidelines for barrier installation.
