Oliver’s Army and PAS 24
October 2015

I spent some of my formative years growing up in a characterful Cotswold cottage that featured several architectural quirks. We won’t go into the single glazed windows that regularly iced-up on the inside in winter, nor the downstairs loo come to that, but I remember the imposing front door well. It was what I can best describe as a solid oak bi-fold featuring cast iron studwork. Although the cottage was small, for some reason the front door opening was larger than normal and the door, reputed to date from the 17th century, could be opened halfway to a few feet wide before opening fully. The story goes that the door dated from the time of the English Civil War when you had to be a bit careful about who you let in when they came knocking. The story was further embellished on the basis that a nearby road was called Gunhouse Lane and said by some local wags to be the location of one of Cromwell’s armouries. Perhaps this was all the fanciful work of a creative estate agent, but an interesting tale nevertheless.

I wondered to myself recently how that front door would perform in a PAS 24 test. One thing is for sure, it would perform much better than the back door of the cottage, which was a real case of sublime to ridiculous. Presumably dating from the 1970s, the back door was woefully inadequate in the security department, and while the large clear glazed panel provided valuable daylight for the galley kitchen beyond, it did make manipulating the lock thumbturn through the letter box much easier. While this saved us from being locked out on a few occasions with the judicious use of a bent bucket handle, it was no joke that we were burgled this very same way. Fortunately we didn’t have much worth stealing and no one was at home at the time, but it was an unpleasant experience.

It is ironic that apparently we did not think of security in the 1970s as much as our forefathers did in the 1670s, but I guess it comes down to the level of threat. The most recent crime statistics for 2014 to 2015 from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) show marked reductions in property crime since peak levels in the 1990s. The CSEW indicates that while there have been long-term declines across most types of property crime, the falls have been pronounced in vehicle-related theft, domestic burglary and criminal damage. There are many theories as to why property crime has fallen but there is some evidence that improved household security is a factor, with increases in the use of window locks and dead locks, for example. It is to be hoped that the introduction of Part Q1 for new dwellings can be shown to contribute further to this trend. With CAB members, we have put considerable effort into getting to grips with Part Q1 and clarifying the requirements, as well as contributing to the revision of PAS 24 underway. We are aiming to publish our first set of AD Q FAQs early in 2016 to provide further timely advice to members.