EN 795 Anchors: Three Types Are Not PPE, and What Changed in 2026

A fall protection package usually goes out as one line in an enquiry: anchor devices to EN 795, CE marked, quantities per the roof plan. The offers come back and the documents do not match each other. The transportable anchors arrive with a CE mark, a notified body number and an EU declaration of conformity. The eyebolts for the parapet, the cable line along the roof edge and the rail over the loading bay arrive with a test report and a drawing, and nothing resembling the certificate the specification asked for. Procurement reads that as three suppliers cutting corners. It is not. The specification asked for a document European law does not provide for those products, and on 9 February 2026 the route that does provide one opened.

What the Official Journal actually says about EN 795

EN 795:2012 covers anchor devices in five types. Type B is transportable and needs no structural fixing. Type E holds by its own mass on a near-horizontal surface. Type A is one or more stationary anchor points needing structural anchors or fixing elements to attach to the structure. Type C employs a horizontal flexible anchor line, and Type D a horizontal rigid one. The first two are equipment a worker carries up and brings down. The last three are part of the building.

The standard is listed as a harmonised standard under the PPE Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2016/425, at item 61 of Annex I to Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/941. That entry carries a warning, and the warning is the subject of this note. The publication does not concern types A, C and D or any combination of them, and for that equipment, in the decision's own words, "there shall be no presumption of conformity with the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2016/425 because they are not considered to be PPE". The restriction has survived every amendment to the list and still reads that way in the version consolidated on 11 June 2025.

This is not a drafting accident; it follows from the definition. Article 3(1)(a) of the Regulation defines personal protective equipment as equipment designed and manufactured to be worn or held by a person. A harness is worn and a lanyard is held. An eyebolt resined into a concrete parapet is neither. Article 14 grants a presumption of conformity only to PPE that meets a published harmonised standard, so for a permanently installed anchor there has never been anything for a notified body to certify under the PPE Regulation.

The documents that should arrive, type by type

For Types B and E the paperwork is prescriptive, and a buyer should insist on all of it. Protection against falling from a height sits in Category III of Annex I to the Regulation, the category reserved for risks that may cause death or irreversible damage to health. Article 19(c) accordingly requires EU type-examination against the standard, followed by either supervised product checks at random intervals or an approved production quality system. Article 17 requires the CE marking to be followed by the identification number of the notified body involved, which is why the four-digit number beside the mark is what to look for rather than the mark itself. Article 15 and Annex IX require a written EU declaration of conformity.

For Types A, C and D none of that applied, and until this year nothing equivalent replaced it. A buyer insisting on a PPE declaration of conformity for a horizontal lifeline was asking a supplier to produce a document the law did not authorise. The suppliers who quietly produced one anyway were the ones worth worrying about.

What changed on 9 February 2026

Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/284, adopted on 6 February 2026, amended Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/451 to cite EN 17235:2024, "Permanent anchor devices and safety hooks", as a harmonised standard under the Construction Products Regulation, Regulation (EU) No 305/2011. The annex entry sets a coexistence period that began on 9 February 2026 and runs to 9 August 2027.

What arrives at the end of that route is a different document, not the same document from a different office, and the distinction is worth holding onto. Under the Construction Products Regulation the manufacturer draws up a declaration of performance under Article 4, and under Article 8(2) the CE marking is affixed to products for which that declaration has been drawn up. A declaration of performance states measured performance against the essential characteristics the standard defines. It is not a declaration of conformity with health and safety requirements, because declaring that is not what this regime does. A specification demanding "a declaration of conformity" for a permanent anchor will still be answered with the wrong piece of paper, or with none.

The dates carry a commercial consequence. Article 17(5) of that Regulation provides that from the start of a coexistence period a harmonised standard may be used to draw up a declaration of performance, and that once the period ends it is the only means of drawing one up. An order placed in late 2027 will therefore need evidence an order placed this month does not, and that transition falls inside the life of most framework agreements being signed today.

Three things buyers get wrong

The first is one enquiry line for the whole anchor scope. "EN 795, CE marked" across a mixed package guarantees offers that cannot be compared, because for two of the five types the certificate exists and for three of them it does not. The line has to be split by type before anyone prices it.

The second is treating the CE mark as the deliverable. For Types B and E the mark means something only with the notified body number beside it and a type-examination certificate behind it, and asking for that certificate by name costs nothing at enquiry stage and is near impossible after delivery.

The third is buying an anchor and believing a system was bought. A fixed anchor's rating is a property of the anchor and the substrate together, so what decides whether a Type A or Type C installation is safe is the design calculation for the actual structure, the fixing method for the substrate, the competence of whoever installs it, and the inspection regime afterwards. No declaration of any kind substitutes for those four things, which is the substantive reason this equipment was never treated as something a person puts on.

Why this matters outside Europe

Most of the above is European law, and most contractors reading it are not building in Europe. It still decides what arrives on site. EN 795 is the designation GCC and African tender documents cite, because it is the designation the catalogues use, and a factory that supplies Europe builds one documentation pack and ships it everywhere. A tender in Riyadh or Lagos asking for anchors that are "EN 795 compliant and CE marked" is asking the same unanswerable question, and no local conformity scheme resolves it: the question is about which European regime the product sits in.

We quote anchor devices by type for that reason. The specification we work from names the type, the substrate, the number of simultaneous users per anchor, and the document expected against each line: EU type-examination and a declaration of conformity carrying a notified body number for Types B and E, and for permanent systems the test evidence, the design basis for the structure and the installation and inspection requirements. Offers are compared on whether those documents exist before they are compared on price, because an offer missing a document is not cheaper, it is incomplete.

What to send us

This note explains what the rule says and what it means for a purchase. It is not legal advice, and the position for a particular order or shipment should be confirmed with the relevant authority or your customs broker. If you are specifying work at height now, send the structure drawing, the anchor types and quantities you believe you need, the substrate they fix to, the number of simultaneous users per anchor, and the market the goods clear into. We will return the scope split by type, with the document each line should carry.