Abstract
Modern codes for structural reliability establish human safety criteria based on the Life Quality Index (LQI) as a constraint to economic optimization principles. However, the use of the LQI may yield higher life safety risks compared to current design approaches. Where this may be the case, as in the design or assessment of key members where failure entails potentially large life safety risks, it is advisable to specify reliability levels in line with accepted practices. Annual target reliabilities for such members in buildings are therefore inferred from implicitly accepted life safety risks associated with current Eurocode practices, with a focus on the correlation between failure events in subsequent years of the structural working life.