A number of tests have been carried out on (component-like) welded bend bars in order to establish the probability distribution of critical loads. This information serves as reference solutions for evaluating the Default level of the European flaw assessment procedure, structural integrity assessment procedure, which is based on the yield strength and Charpy data as the only input information often available to the user. Despite the poor input information, the procedure has shown to yield conservative but suitable predictions of the critical load distribution in the ductile-to-brittle transition range.