UK national standards body

BSI shares knowledge, fosters innovation and instils best practice as the UK's national standards body

The world’s first national standards body

The world’s first national standards body
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image of BSI logo on building
image of BSI logo on building
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BSI shares knowledge, fosters innovation and instils best practice as the UK's national standards body

Find out more

We are the UK national standards body

BSI is appointed by the UK Government as the national standards body, holds the Royal Charter, and represents UK interests at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the European Standards Organizations (CEN, CENELEC and ETSI). Formed in 1901, BSI was the world’s first national standards body. 

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Our role as the UK NSB is to help improve the quality and safety of products, services and systems by enabling the creation of standards and encouraging their use. We represent UK economic and social interests across all European and international standards organizations and in the development of business information solutions for British organizations of all sizes and sectors.

We publish over 3,100 standards each year, underpinned by a collaborative approach, engaging with industry experts, government bodies, trade associations, businesses of all sizes and consumers to develop standards that reflect good business practice, protect consumers and facilitate international trade. 

Delivering best practice knowledge

Knowledge sits at the core of every successful business. This has always been true, but with ever more information at our fingertips, real knowledge can be very elusive.  How can you be sure that your business, your organization has access to the best available knowledge?

Knowledge is not just information; it’s a quality. Knowledge is something you can trust, something you can safely base far-reaching decisions on.

British Standards are knowledge. They’re the distilled wisdom of experience and expertise, carefully assembled in a dependable format, tried and tested yet flexible and dynamic.

The knowledge in a British Standard has been refined by our processes of comment and consultation and represents a consensus position of everyone who has made a contribution to it. We review it regularly and keep it up-to-date. You can be confident that it is also the knowledge that others are using as the basis for their own business decisions; your partners, your suppliers, your customers, your competitors.

You can use our knowledge in our standards and other publications to supplement knowledge you already have, or as the basis for more knowledge you want to create. Our knowledge is there for you to use in your business, in whatever way suits you best. However you use it, you can rely on it.

Find out more about the benefits of standards

Standards as business recovery accelerators

As the world’s economy begins to adjust to a post-pandemic world, there is cautious optimism for gradual recovery. We spoke to Anne Hayes and David Bell, senior directors at BSI, to find out how standards fit into the recovery picture.

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