The United Kingdom Security Shredding Association (UKSSA) has welcomed the launch of a new revised European standard for the secure destruction of confidential and sensitive material.
BS EN 15713:2023 – which was published in the UK in September 2023 and will be implemented from 2024 – sets out the best practice security requirements for the destruction of confidential material, ranging from paper documents to hard drives. The standard is more robust than its 2009 predecessor and represents a major revision which is expected to impact data destruction and security processes across the UK and Europe.
It will be incorporated into UKSSA’s industry-leading code of practice and all UKSSA members will be audited against it from April 2024.
Paul Caldwell, Chair of UKSSA, said, “We welcome the publication of this revised standard which aligns with UKSSA’s ethos of raising industry standards and setting the highest bar in the information destruction industry. Through our Code of Practice we will ensure that all UKSSA members are working to this new standard, giving customers utmost peace of mind that they are working with a security shredding provider that they can trust.
“The standard sets a modern benchmark for our industry and correlates more with the requirements of regulations such as GDPR and increasingly high demands to keep information secure.”
BS EN 15713:2023 is double the length of the previous 2009 standard, owing to the huge change seen in the information destruction industry and data protection requirements since 2009. The document sets out guidelines and best practice for organisations and service providers involved. This includes security measures such as personnel vetting, collection and transportation and destruction methods.
By following the new standard, users can be assured that sensitive information is being destroyed according to the latest best practice in information destruction across Europe. The standard currently in use, BS EN 15713: 2009, will be withdrawn in the UK from the end of March 2024.
