Simply Shredding Liverpool, the journey to obtaining BS EN 15713 – 2023.
At Simply Shredding Liverpool, immediately as we began providing shredding services we had decided that we should start the operation at a level able to meet the BS EN 15713 standard. We already provided other services to local authorities, NHS and other professional services and were aware that a level of nationally recognised approval would be necessary to enable us to compete for their shredding business. As a result, we have held BS EN 15713 – 2009, since March 2017.
Simply Shredding Liverpool were one of the first companies under the Simply Shredding umbrella to go for the new standard so there was very little gained experience of the new standard available for us to reference.
The most obvious difference was the quantity of information contained in the new standard. The 2009 version had only five pages of relevant information, the 2023 revision carries a weighty forty-seven pages describing the minimum levels of operation required to obtain approval and certification. BS EN 2023 also afforded different security levels for the shredding service, the higher the level you were aiming for the more stringent and demanding the criteria.
When you have established the level you are aiming for all the other criteria become clearer. From there we created an analysis of every page in the 2023 release with notes where alterations and or improvements were necessary. It is important to read each requirement carefully as some elements are only relevant to the higher security levels, annex B (pages35-50) is a valuable resource for analysing the differences between the different security levels.
Our customers have seen no real change to the service we provide. We still collect their confidential material in a way that appears unchanged to them, we still provide a certificate of destruction. They receive regular visits from the same friendly, professional team rather than a random representative of a large “faceless” corporation. We have and retain some of those customers because we hold BS EN 15713.