United Kingdom Other useful links Media centre Careers Contact us Standards Services Sectors Topics About GO Home Standards - information and benefits Information about standards from the industry experts SHARE What is a standard? In essence, a standard is an agreed way of doing something. It could be about making a product, managing a process, delivering a service or supplying materials – standards can cover a huge range of activities undertaken by organizations and used by their customers. Standards are the distilled wisdom of people with expertise in their subject matter and who know the needs of the organizations they represent – people such as manufacturers, sellers, buyers, customers, trade associations, users or regulators. Our portfolio extends to more than 30,000 current standards. They are designed for voluntary use so it’s up to you – you’re not forced to follow a set of rules that make life harder for you, you’re offered ways to do your work better. Standards are knowledge. They are powerful tools that can help drive innovation and increase productivity. They can make organizations more successful and people’s everyday lives easier, safer and healthier. The kinds of things that standards do Standards cover a wide range of subjects from construction to nanotechnology, from energy management to health and safety, from cricket balls to goalposts. They can be very specific, such as to a particular type of product, or general such as management practices. The point of a standard is to provide a reliable basis for people to share the same expectations about a product or service. This helps to: facilitate trade provide a framework for achieving economies, efficiencies and interoperability enhance consumer protection and confidence. Organizations might use: a quality management standard to help them work more efficiently and reduce product failures an environmental management standard to help reduce environmental impacts, reduce waste and be more sustainable a health and safety standard to help reduce accidents in the workplace an IT security standard to help keep sensitive information secure a construction standard to help build a house an energy management standard to help cut energy consumption a food safety standard to help prevent food from being contaminated an accessibility standard to help make buildings accessible to disabled users an interoperability standard to ensure that bank and credit cards fit into ATMs and can be used throughout the world. Access standards with British Standards Online (BSOL) BSOL is a standard management system built with leading industry knowledge, trusted and used by businesses globally. Access, view and download standards with multiple user access, across multiple sites, facilitating the distribution of the knowledge across your business. You can subscribe to our pre-built modules or build a personalized standards collection, saving your organization money, reducing risk by enabling access to the latest version of standards with bibliographical data and instilling trust with your clients partnering with BSI. Find out more Contact us If you have any questions regarding our products and services please contact us. Email us: cservices@bsigroup.com Call us: +44 345 086 9001 SHARE FIND A STANDARD ISO 9001 Quality Management ISO 13485 Quality Management ISO 14001 Environmental Management ISO 22301 Business continuity ISO/IEC 27001 Information security ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety ISO 50001 Energy Management ISO 37001 Anti-Bribery Management System View all standards SERVICES Access and buy standards Develop a standard Online subscription services Standards services Assessment and ISO certification Auditing and verification Product testing and certification Validate BSI-issued certificates Training courses Medical devices services BSI Connect View all services SECTORS Aerospace Automotive Banking and financial services Construction and Built Environment Education Energy, oil and gas Food Government Healthcare Hospitals IT Manufacturing and engineering Medical devices View all sectors TOPICS Future of mobility Global market access Health and safety Information security Innovation Internet of things (IoT) Organizational Resilience Sustainability - Circular economy - Net zero View all topics Built Environment Cybersecurity and information resilience Food Industry View all blogs ABOUT About BSI BSI impartiality Our accreditation Our clients and partners Our financial information Our governance Our legal information Our purpose, mission and vision Our Royal Charter UK National Standards body Events and webinars Sustainability Modern Slavery Statement (PDF) CONTACT BSI +44 345 086 9001 Site Policy: Privacy notice Cookie policy Terms of use Accessibility Site map © The British Standards Institution 2021 Impartiality is the governing principle of how BSI provides its services. Impartiality means acting fairly and equitably in its dealings with people and in all business operations. It means decisions are made free from any engagements of influences which could affect the objectivity of decision making. As an accredited certification body, BSI Assurance cannot offer certification to clients where they have also received consultancy from another part of the BSI Group for the same management system. Likewise, we do not offer consultancy to clients when they also seek certification to the same management system. The British Standards Institution (BSI, a company incorporated by Royal Charter), performs the National Standards Body (NSB) activity in the UK. BSI, together with its Group Companies, also offers a broad portfolio of business solutions other than NSB activity that help businesses worldwide to improve results through Standards-based best practice (such as certification, self-assessment tool, software, product testing, information products and training). 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