What is BS EN 81-76:2025?
BS EN 81-76:2025 is a newly published standard by the British Standards Institution (BSI) that focuses on the evacuation of individuals with disabilities using lifts. Titled “Safety rules for the construction and installation of lifts: Particular applications for passenger and goods passenger lifts – Evacuation of persons with disabilities using lifts.” This standard lays out additional requirements to EN 81-20:2020, specifically aimed at ensuring quicker evacuations for people with disabilities, especially during fire alarms.
According to the document’s guidance, “This is the first European standard specifying a lift that may be used for the evacuation of persons with disabilities.” Traditionally, building occupants have been advised against using lifts during emergencies, including fire alarms. As such, the potential use of lifts as outlined in this standard may represent a new concept for both building managers and occupants.
As part of the broader BS EN 81 series, which sets safety requirements and protective measures for lift construction and installation, this new standard includes several essential features. These features consist of various operational protocols for evacuations and lift classifications tailored to the complexity of the building.
The standard details three optional operational types:
- Driver-assisted evacuation operation
- Automatic evacuation operation
- Remote-assisted evacuation operation
Building managers can choose one or more of these options based on the building type and selected evacuation strategy.
The standard also accounts for simpler buildings that may not need the full specifications for evacuation lifts as described in BS EN 81-76:2025. It outlines two classifications of lifts:
Class A: for simpler buildings
Class B: for more complex buildings that require firefighter lifts
The 2025 edition supersedes DD CEN/TS 81-76:2011, which has been withdrawn. It is recommended that this new standard be read alongside other standards in the series, including BS EN 81-20, which governs the design of new lifts.
The standard does not apply to:
– Lifts used for evacuation in situations that introduce additional hazards, such as the threat of explosions, chemical or biological attacks, flooding, storm damage, or earthquakes. In these cases, BS EN 81-76 serves as guidance, but further measures should be implemented based on a risk assessment.
– The provision of evacuation aids designed to assist when the evacuation lift is unavailable.
Annex D lists significant hazards addressed by BS EN 81-76.
However, the following notable hazards are excluded from the scope of this document:
– Fire or smoke in the evacuation lift shaft, safe areas, or machinery rooms
– Water ingress into the lift shaft during the evacuation process
– Insufficient or improperly located evacuation lifts
– Inadequate evacuation capacity
– Users’ inability to understand how to use the lift during evacuation
– Entrapment in the waiting area (safe area) due to a lack of lift service or nearby stairs
– Structural collapse or failure of building services, including public supply networks, lighting, and ventilation, before the evacuation using lifts is complete
– The presence of harmful gases, potentially explosive atmospheres, extreme climate conditions, or the transport of hazardous materials
– Unavailability of the evacuation lift
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