British Standards

British Standards are the standards produced by BSI Group which is incorporated under aRoyal Charter (and which is formally designated as the Standards_organization#National_standards_bodies" style="background-image: none; color: rgb(6,69,173); text-decoration: none; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial" title="Standards organization">National Standards Body (NSB) for the UK).^[1] The BSI Group produces British Standards under the authority of the Charter, which lays down as one of the BSI's objectives to:

(2) Set up standards of quality for goods and services, and prepare and promote the general adoption of British Standards and schedules in connection therewith and from time to time to revise, alter and amend such standards and schedules as experience and circumstances require

—BSI Royal Charter, Faller and Graham

Formally, as per the 2002 Memorandum of Understanding between the BSI and the United Kingdom Government, British Standards are defined as:

"British Standards" means formal consensus standards as set out in BS 0-1 paragraph 3.2 and based upon the principles of standardisation recognised inter alia in European standardisation policy.

—MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE UNITED KINGDOM GOVERNMENT AND THE BRITISH STANDARDS INSTITUTION IN RESPECT OF ITS ACTIVITIES AS THE UNITED KINGDOM'S NATIONAL STANDARDS BODY, United Kingdom Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills

Products and services which BSI certifies as having met the requirements of specific standards within designated schemes are awarded the Kitemark.

British Standards are one of the formal exceptions made to the Restrictive Trade Practices Act. §18(5) of the Act specifies that agreements to comply with British Standards should be disregarded when deciding whether an agreement is a restriction upon trade.

Standards_are_made">How British Standards are made

The BSI Group as a whole does not produce British Standards, as standards work within the BSI is decentralized. The governing Board of BSI establishes a Standards Board. The Standards Board does little apart from setting up Sector Boards (a Sector in BSI parlance being a field of standardization such as ICT, Quality, Agriculture, Manufacturing, or Fire). Each Sector Board in turn constitutes several Technical Committees. It is the Technical Committees that, formally, approve a British Standard, which is then presented to the Secretary of the supervisory Sector Board for endorsement of the fact that the Technical Committee has indeed completed a task for which it was constituted.^[6]

The standards

The standards produced are titled British Standard XXXX[-P]:YYYY where XXXX is the number of the standard, P is the number of the part of the standard (where the standard is split into multiple parts) and YYYY is the year in which the standard came into effect. BSI Group currently has over 27,000 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 Kitemark can be used to indicate certification by BSI, but only where a Kitemark 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 Kitemarks 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.

Following the move on harmonisation of the standard in Europe, some British Standards are gradually superseded or replaced by the relevant European Standards (EN).

History

BSI Group 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.

Standards">Examples of British Standards

BSI Group headquarter in Chiswickdistrict in London.

• BS 0 A standard for standards specifies Development, Structure and Drafting of British Standards themselves.

• BS 9 - for bullhead steel rail sections in various weights.
• BS 11 - for flat-bottom steel rail sections in various weights

• BS 31 for steel conduit and fittings for electrical wiring
• BS 88 a specification for cartridge fuses for voltages up to and including 1000 V a.c. and 1500 V d.c.
• BS 196 for protected-type non-reversible plugs, socket-outlets cable-couplers and appliance-couplers with earthing contacts for single phase a.c. circuits up to 250 volts
• BS 308 a now deleted standard for engineering drawing conventions, having been absorbed into BS 8888.
• BS 336 for fire hose couplings and ancillary equipment
• BS 381 for colours used in identification, coding and other special purposes
• BS 476 for fire resistance of building materials / elements
• BS 499-1 welding terms and symbols. Glossary for welding, brazing and thermal cutting
• BS 546 for mains power plugs and sockets (older standard)
• BS 857 for safety glass for land transport
• BS 987C: 1942 Camouflage Colours^[7]
• BS 1088 for marine plywood
• BS 1192 for Construction Drawing Practice. Part 5 (BS1192-5:1998) concerns Guide for structuring and exchange of CAD data.
• BS 1361 for cartridge fuses for a.c. circuits in domestic and similar premises
• BS 1363 for mains power plugs and sockets
• BS 1377-9:1990 The standard penetration test (SPT) is an in-situ dynamic penetration test designed to provide information on the geotechnical engineering properties of soil.
• BS 1572: 1949 Colours for Flat Finishes for Wall Decoration^[8]
• BS 1881:201 Methods of Testing Concrete Part 201: Guide to the Use of Non-Destructive Methods of Test for Hardened Concrete
• BS 1881:204 Testing concrete. Recommendations on the use of electromagnetic covermeters.
• BS 1852 resistor and capacitor value coding
• BS 2660 for colours for building and decorative paints^[9]
• BS 3506 for unplasticized PVC pipe for industrial uses
• BS 3621 for thief resistant lock assembly. Key egress.
• BS 3943 for plastic waste traps
• BS 4293 for residual current-operated circuit-breakers
• BS 4343 for industrial electrical power connectors
• BS 4573 a specification for 2-pin reversible plugs and shaver socket-outlets
• BS 4800 for paint colours used in building construction
• BS 4900 for vitreous enamel colours used in building construction
• BS 4901 for plastic colours used in building construction
• BS 4902 for sheet / tile floor covering colours used in building construction
• BS 4960 for weighing instruments for domestic cookery
• BS 4962 for plastics pipes and fittings for use as subsoil field drains
• BS 5252 for colour-coordination in building construction
• BS 5400 for steel, concrete and composite bridges.
• BS 5499 for graphical symbols and signs in building construction; including shape, colour and layout
• BS 5544 for anti-bandit glazing (glazing resistant to manual attack)
• BS 5750 for quality management, the source for ISO 9000
• BS 5759 Specification for webbing load restraint assemblies for use in surface transport
• BS 5837 for protection of trees during construction work
• BS 5930 for Site_investigation" style="background-image: none; color: rgb(6,69,173); text-decoration: none; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial" title="Site investigation">site investigations
• BS 5950 for structural steel
• BS 6312 for telephone plugs and sockets
• BS 6651 code of practice for protection of structures against lightning
• BS 6701 installation, operation and maintenance of telecommunications equipment and telecommunications cabling
• BS 6879 for British geocodes, a superset of ISO 3166-2:GB
• BS 7430 code of practice for earthing
• BS 7671 Requirements for Electrical Installations, The IEE Wiring Regulations, produced by the IET.
• BS 7799 for information security, the source for ISO/IEC 27001, 27002 (former 17799), and 27005
• BS 7901 for recovery vehicles and vehicle recovery equipment
• BS 7925-1 vocabulary of terms in software testing
• BS 7925-2 software component testing
• BS 7971 Protective clothing and equipment for use in violent situations and in training
• BS 8110 for structural concrete
• BS 8485 for the characterization and remediation from ground gas in affected developments
• BS 8494 for detecting and measuring carbon dioxide in ambient air or extraction systems
• BS 8888 for engineering drawing and technical product specification
• BS 15000 for IT Service Management, (ITIL), now ISO/IEC 20000
• BS 3G 101 for general requirements for mechanical and electromechanical aircraft indicators
• BSEN12195-2-2001 Load restraint assemblies on road vehicles. Safety. Web lashing made from man-made fibres
• BS EN 60204-1:2009 Safety of machinery - Electrical equipment of machines