Standards

British Standards Institution (BSI)

Fast facts and figures

Established in 1901, BSI was the world’s first national standards body
The original BSI committee met for the first time on the day Queen Victoria died – 22 January 1901. One of the first standards it went on to publish was designed to reduce the number of sizes of tramway rails
The Health and Safety Executive staff are involved with other organisations in developing British Standards through numerous BSI Technical Committees.
BSI’s Kitemark™ has provided reassurance for over 100 years, and a GfK NOP survey of 1,000 UK adults in December 2010 showed that 72% recognize the BSI Kitemark and associate it with safe and reliable products and services. The first Kitemark was awarded to General Electric for Vitreous Enamelled Steel Reflectors for Lighting Fittings
Together BSI clients account for 55% of the FTSE 100, 40% of the Fortune 500 and 26% of the Nikkei listed companies
BSI is one of the world’s largest independent certification bodies for management systems, with over 99,000 registered sites across the globe
In 2013, BSI provided practical training for approximately 88,000 people worldwide on how to implement and operate standards
The former UK Department of Trade and Industry (now known as the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) quantified standards as contributing £2.5 billion annually to the UK economy.
92% of the world’s top 25 global medical device manufacturers choose BSI as their notified Body for CE marking certification against the EU directives
BSI has been independently voted a UK Business Superbrand every year from 2003 to 2014 and its Kitemark from 2008 to 2014
Entropy Software is used at over 20,000 locations and by more than 100,000 users to improve their management systems practices.
The quality management systems standard, ISO 9001 – which started life at BSI in 1979 as BS 5750 – is now recognized as the world’s most successful standard having been adopted by more than one million organisations in 178 countries.
BSI developed a sustainable events standard (ISO 20121) for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games; the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) was the first of its type to achieve certification.

Further information: www.bsigroup.com