Guidance

Body armour standard 2017

Guidance on the minimum performance requirements and test methods for body armour intended for UK law enforcement agencies.

• From: Home Office
• Published: 31 July 2017
• Last updated: 1 August 2025 바카라 사이트� See all updates

Documents

PDF, 1.44 MB, 92 pages

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PDF, 712 KB, 22 pages

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Details

We have made minor amendments to the standard. See 바카라 사이트楤AS17 Minor Amendments바카라 사이트� on the for details.

The Home Office body armour standard 2017 provides minimum performance requirements and test methods for the assessment of body armour to protect against ballistic, knife and spike threats.

The key improvements from the previous Home Office standards include:

• formed armour testing: anthropometrically derived test surrogates, more representative of the morphologies of the female torso, enabling enhanced assessment of female body armour

• ballistic protection levels: an updated set of ballistic protection levels with test rounds reflecting the current operational requirements of UK law enforcement

• rifle testing: anthropometrically derived male front and back torso surrogates for ballistic testing to provide enhanced assessment on the performance of rifle protection

• production quality testing (PQT): introduction of critical perforation analysis (CPA) as a quality assurance tool to provide increased confidence in the continued production quality of soft armour

• in life monitoring (ILM): periodical assessment of in service body armour over a period of time to ensure performance is maintained

The guidance document is used to help police services and procurement bodies make decisions when choosing body armour, and outline elements of best practice for end users.

It addresses considerations beyond body armour testing and certification, including:

• selecting the most appropriate armour
• coverage and fit assessments
• in service maintenance and lifecycle considerations

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Published 31 July 2017

Last updated 1 August 2025 + show all updates

1. 1 August 2025

   Added a link to minor amendments to the standard and removed the list of test facilities.

2. 23 March 2018

   Added a list of Home Office Body Armour Standard (2017) test facilities.

3. 31 July 2017

   First published.