How standards help consumers

All standards affect the public directly or indirectly, even though most are produced to serve the immediate needs of business and industry. Many, though, have a direct and beneficial impact on the general public. These include ‘traditional’ consumer related standards such as those for domestic appliances, or signs and symbols, as well as those newer types of standard for sustainability, social responsibility or services.

Consumer representation in standards - Consumer & Public Interest (CPI) Network

BSI is committed to trying to ensure that representation on its technical committees and access to the standards-making process is as wide as possible and maintains a Consumer & Public Interest (CPI) Network, responsible for co-ordinating the participation of those stakeholders who would not otherwise normally be involved at a day-to-day level, e.g. consumers and individual specialists in subjects such as child safety or ergonomics.

The objective of the CPI Network is to influence the content of standards to reflect the needs and proper expectations of the general public with regard to factors such safety and security, labelling, accessibility, fairness and redress.

Very many subjects are covered by the CPI Network, but current priorities are in the areas of sustainability, security, accessibility, and the new and expanding field of services standardisation. We also continue to cover important ongoing work on product safety, child safety and symbols, where our expertise and contribution are crucial.

Representatives are recruited and supported by BSI. They come from diverse backgrounds and have a range of high quality expertise and experience. Those who are unfamiliar with standardisation are given suitable training and guidance in the standardisation process, including specific skills required for researching, reporting and attendance at meetings both here and abroad.

If you are interested in being involved with this work, please contact 
consumer@bsigroup.com.