British Standards is a trading division of the British Standards Institution and is part of BSI Group which also includes a testing organisation. British Standards has a Royal Charter to act as the standards organisation for the UK. It is formally designated as the National Standards Body (NSB) for the UK.

BSI group incorporates three divisions - the Standards division which publishes British Standards, the Product Services division (the "Kitemark") and the Mananagement Systems division, a management systems registrar.

The standards produced are titled British Standard XXXX where XXXX is the number of the standard. British Standards currently has over 17,000 active standards. Products are commonly specified as meeting a particular British Standard, and in general this can be done without any certification or independent testing. The standard simply provides a shorthand way of claiming that certain specifications are met, while encouraging manufacturers to adhere to a common method for such a specification.

The Kite Mark can be used to indicate certification by the BSI, but only where a Kite Mark scheme has been set up around a particular standard. It is mainly applicable to safety and quality management standards. There is a common misunderstanding that Kite Marks are necessary to prove compliance with any BS standard, but in general it is neither desirable nor possible that every standard be 'policed' in this way.

British Standards began in 1901 as the Engineering Standards Committee, led by James Mansergh, to standardise the number and type of steel sections, in order to make British manufacturers more efficient and competitive.

Over time the standards developed to cover many aspects of tangible engineering, and then engineering methodologies including quality systems, safety and security.

Another key activity carried out by British Standards is the CE Marking of Medical Devices. The CE 0086 marking can be issued to devices that are found to comply with the Medical Device Directive.

Frequently used BS standards

• BS 1363 for mains power plugs and sockets
• BS 546 for mains power plugs and sockets (older standard)
• BS 5750 for quality management, the source for ISO 9000
• BS 5950 for structural steel
• BS 6312 for telephone plugs and sockets
• BS 6879 for British geocodes, a superset of GB
• BS 7799 for information security, the source for ISO 17799
• BS 8110 for structural concrete
• BS 15000 for IT Service Management, (ITIL), now ISO 20000

External links

• Official website
• BSI Online Shop
• info4education – allows users at many British universities to download selected British Standards via an ATHENS login

1901 establishments | ISO member bodies | IEC | Certification marks | Organisations based in the United Kingdom

British Standards | BSI Group