Organizations use standards because they help them operate and perform more productively and competitively. But it’s precisely because standards work so well that the government wants to encourage new standards – to support economic growth, to help meet the UK’s policy goals and to support the growth of new and emerging areas.
The government department responsible for policy on standardization is the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Because BSI is the UK National Standards Body, BEIS works closely with BSI, drawing on our experience and using our specialist skills and expertise. Aims to developing world-class competitive standards include:
- Encouraging innovation among UK businesses
- Helping UK businesses participate in new markets and in new and/or emerging areas
- De-risking business operations and production
- Create efficiencies in multiple sectors of the economy
- Ensure the UK is at the forefront of legislation and regulation, supported through standards
- Maintaining the UK as a global leader in standardization, keeping the UK at the forefront to changes in European and International standardization
To achieve these goals, BEIS supports a huge range of BSI activities, enabling BSI to create new standards, codes of practice and guides; write case studies and research reports; to access important European and international standards services such as ISO and CEN; and organise an array of events. It also funds the UK's participation in international standards by contributing to the travel costs of UK experts. BEIS funding also supports government departments and agencies access to discounted standards so they, too, can benefit.
BSI also collaborates with other parts of government. For example, in 2018, in response to the publication of the Connected and autonomous vehicles – A UK standards strategy, BSI secured £1M funding from the UK Government’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) for a two-year programme to accelerate and support the development of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) and shape the development of international standards. The programme of work will be administered by Innovate UK. Other partners include Meridian and the Department for Transport.
