[en] For pressurised components there is an increasing interest in the use of leak-before-break arguments to show that defects will behave in a ''failsafe'' manner by growing in such a way as to cause a detectable leak before a disruptive failure of the pressure boundary can occur. The CEGB operates a wide variety of plant and has recognised the need for a flexible leak-before-break procedure which can be applied in a variety of different situations including part-through defects. This paper describes the development of such a procedure and discusses some of the key aspects of the leak-before-break procedure. (author)