What is BS EN 61069-7 – Safety of basic control systems about?
BS EN 61069-7 is the seventh part of the IEC 61069 multi-series that discusses industrial process measurement, control and automation.
BS EN 61069-7:
- Specifies the detailed method of the assessment of system safety of a basic control system (BCS) based on the basic concepts of BS EN 61069-1 and methodology of BS EN 61069-2
- Defines basic categorization of system safety properties
- Describes the factors that influence system safety and which need to be taken into account when evaluating system safety
- Provides guidance in selecting techniques from a set of options (with references) for evaluating the system safety
The treatment of safety in BS EN 61069-7 is confined to hazards that can be present within the BCS itself. That is, the BCS itself as a physical entity will not impose a hazard.
Considerations of hazards that can be introduced by the process or equipment under control, of the BCS to be assessed, are excluded.
Who is BS EN 61069-7 – Safety of basic control systems for?
BS EN 61069-7 on assessment of system safety is useful for:
- Manufacturers of basic control systems
- Industries that use basic control systems
- System operators
- Assessment agencies
Why should you use BS EN 61069-7 – Safety of basic control systems?
The extent to which the system is free of hazards can be expressed as system safety properties. A system is not always free of a hazard even if the individual parts that compose the system are themselves free of hazard; for example, individual parts can be stable whereas the same parts configured to form a system can be unstable and therefore hazardous.
BS EN 61069-7 helps you to verify the safety of BCS by testing its hazard reduction, hazard isolation, immunity, aversion and mitigation properties. Testing these properties of BCS BS EN 61069-7 helps you to identify the hazard handling capacity of the BCS.
Overall, the guidelines of BS EN 61069-7 help you to verify the safety of your BCS and thereby enhance the safety of your manufacturing units.
What’s changed since the last update?
BS EN 61069-7:2016 supersedes IEC 61069-7:1999. BS EN 61069-7:2016 includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the IEC 61069-7:1999:
- Reorganization of the material of IEC 61069-7:1999 to make the overall set of standards more organized and consistent
- IEC TS 62603-1 has been incorporated into this edition

