Standards

We live in a global market place in which common standards are becoming increasingly vital e.g. fire safety standards for new buildings, and limits on pollutants in the interests of environmental protection and public health. From a UK perspective, membership of the EU is important too, as are our trading links worldwide. As a result, stakeholders in the UK are interested not only in British Standards but also in European Standards and International Standards, and BSI helps to serve the UK interest in their creation.

There are a variety of ways of developing standards. The time they take to create depends on their intended use and the number of different groups needed to reach consensus. Standards that involve representation from business, government and society are known as formal standards and may take two years or more to create. A number of other standards are also often created, such as codes of practice, and guides to the use of standards for particular types of business or industry.