British Standard - Definition and Overview

British Standards is the new name of the British Standards Institute and is part of BSI Group which also includes a testing organisation. British Standards has a Royal Charter to act as the standards organization for the UK.

The standards produced are titled British Standard XXX where XXX is the number of the standard. British Standards currently has over 17,000 active standards. Products that meet a standard can be labelled with a Kite Mark and the appropriate standard number prefixed with the abbreviation BS.

British Standards began in 1901 as the Engineering Standards Committee, led by James Mansergh, to standardize 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.

BS standards

• BS 1363

External links

• Official website (http://www.bsi-global.com/)