British Standards

BSI Kitemark certification symbol

British Standards are produced by BSI British Standards, a division of BSI Group that is incorporated under a Royal Charter and is formally designated as the National Standards Body (NSB) for the UK.

The standards

The standards produced are titled British Standard XXXX[-P]:YYYY where XXXX is the number of the standard, P is the number of the part of the standard (where the standard is split into multiple parts) and YYYY is the year in which the standard came into effect. British Standards currently has over 27,000 active standards. Products are commonly specified as meeting a particular British Standard, and in general this can be done without any certification or independent testing. The standard simply provides a shorthand way of claiming that certain specifications are met, while encouraging manufacturers to adhere to a common method for such a specification.

The Kitemark can be used to indicate certification by BSI, but only where a Kitemark scheme has been set up around a particular standard. It is mainly applicable to safety and quality management standards. There is a common misunderstanding that Kitemarks are necessary to prove compliance with any BS standard, but in general it is neither desirable nor possible that every standard be 'policed' in this way.

Following the move on harmonisation of the standard in Europe, some British Standards are gradually superseded or replaced by the relevant European Standards (EN).

History

BSI Group began in 1901 as the Engineering Standards Committee, led by James Mansergh, to standardise 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.

Examples of British Standards

BSI Group headquarter in Chiswick district in London.

• BS 0 A standard for standards specifies Development, Structure and Drafting of British Standards themselves.
• BS 31 steel conduit and fittings for electrical wiring
• BS 88 cartridge fuses for voltages up to and including 1000 V a.c. and 1500 V d.c.
• BS 196 for protected-type non-reversible plugs, socket-outlets cable-couplers and appliance-couplers with earthing contacts for single phase a.c. circuits up to 250 volts
• BS 336 for fire hose couplings and ancillary equipment
• BS 381 for colours used in identification, coding and other special purposes
• BS 476 for fire resistance of building materials / elements
• BS 499-1 Welding terms and symbols. Glossary for welding, brazing and thermal cutting
• BS 546 for mains power plugs and sockets (older standard)
• BS 857 for safety glass for land transport
• BS 1088 for marine plywood
• BS 1192 for Construction Drawing Practice. Part 5 (BS1192-5:1998) concerns Guide for structuring and exchange of CAD data.
• BS 1361 for cartridge fuses for a.c. circuits in domestic and similar premises
• BS 1363 for mains power plugs and sockets
• BS 1377-9:1990 The standard penetration test (SPT) is an in-situ dynamic penetration test designed to provide information on the geotechnical engineering properties of soil.
• BS 1852 resistor and capacitor value coding
• BS 2660 Colours for Building and Decorative Paints
• BS 3506 for unplasticized PVC pipe for industrial uses
• BS 3621 for thief resistant lock assembly. Key egress.
• BS 3943 for plastics waste traps
• BS 4573 plug socket for shavers
• BS 4293 for residual current-operated circuit-breakers
• BS 4343 for industrial electrical power connectors
• BS 4800 for paint colours used in building construction
• BS 4900 for vitreous enamel colours used in building construction
• BS 4901 for plastic colours used in building construction
• BS 4902 for sheet / tile floor covering colours used in building construction
• BS 4960 for weighing instruments for domestic cookery
• BS 4962 for plastics pipes and fittings for use as subsoil field drains
• BS 5252 for colour-coordination in building construction
• BS 5400 Steel, concrete and composite bridges.
  • BS 5400-1 General statement
  • BS 5400-2 Specification for loads
  • BS 5400-3 Code of practice for design of steel bridges
  • BS 5400-4 Code of practice for design of concrete bridges.
  • BS 5400-5 Code of practice for design of composite bridges
  • BS 5400-6 Specification for materials and workmanship, steel.
  • BS 5400-7 Specification for materials and workmanship, concrete, reinforcement and prestressing tendons.
  • BS 5400-8 Recommendations for materials and workmanship, concrete, reinforcement and prestressing tendons.
  • BS 5400-9.1 Bridge bearings. Code of practice for design of bridge bearings.
  • BS 5400-9.2 Bridge bearings. Specification for materials, manufacture and installation of bridge bearings.
  • BS 5400-10 Code of practice for fatigue.
  • BS 5400-10C Charts for classification of details for fatigue
• BS 5499 for graphical symbols and signs in building construction; including shape, colour and layout
• BS 5544 for anti-bandit glazing (glazing resistant to manual attack)
• BS 5750 for quality management, the source for ISO 9000
• BS 5930 for site investigations
• BS 5950 for structural steel
• BS 6312 for telephone plugs and sockets
• BS 6651 code of practice for protection of structures against lightning
• BS 6701 installation, operation and maintenance of telecommunications equipment and telecommunications cabling
• BS 6879 for British geocodes, a superset of ISO 3166-2:GB
• BS 7430 code of practice for earthing
• BS 7671 Requirements for Electrical Installations, The IEE Wiring Regulations, produced by the IET.
• BS 7799 for information security, the source for ISO/IEC 27001, 27002 (former 17799), and 27005
• BS 7901 for recovery vehicles and vehicle recovery equipment
• BS 7925-1 Vocabulary of terms in software testing
• BS 7925-2 Software component testing
• BS 8110 for structural concrete
• BS 8485 for the characterization and remediation from ground gas in affected developments
• BS 8494 for detecting and measuring carbon dioxide in ambient air or extraction systems
• BS 15000 for IT Service Management, (ITIL), now ISO/IEC 20000
• BS 3G 101 for general requirements for mechanical and electromechanical aircraft indicators

Publicly Available Specifications

BSI also publishes a series of Publicly Available Specification (PAS) documents.

Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) are a flexible and rapid standards development model that is open to all organizations. A PAS is a sponsored piece of work allowing organizations flexibility in the rapid creation of a standard while also allowing for a greater degree of control over the document's development. A typical development time frame for a PAS is around 6-9 months. Once published by BSI a PAS has all the functionality of a British Standard for the purposes of creating schemes such as management systems and product benchmarks as well as codes of practice. A PAS is a living document and after two years the document will be reviewed and a decision made with the client as to whether or not this should be taken forward to become a formal British standard.

Examples

• PAS 78: Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites
• PAS 55- 1: Asset management - Specification for the optimized management of physical infrastructure assests
• PAS 72: Responsible Fishing - Specification of good practice for fishing vessels
• PAS 911: Fire strategies - guidance and framework for their formulation
• PAS 82: Shopfitting - Management system specification
• PAS 77: IT Service continuity Management - Code of Practice

• BSI PAS 100 Composting specification
• BSI PAS 101 Specification for recovered container glass
• BSI PAS 102 Specification for processed glass for selected secondary end markets
• BSI PAS 103 Specification for quality and guidance for good practice in collection and preparation for recycling
• BSI PAS 104 Specification for quality and guidance for good practice for the supply of post consumer wood for consumption in the manufacture of panel board products
• BSI PAS 105 Specification for paper waste

Availability

Copies of British Standards are sold at the BSI Online Shop or can be accessed via subscription to British Standards Online (BSOL). They can also be ordered via the publishing units of many other national standards bodies (ANSI, DIN, etc.) and from several specialized suppliers of technical specifications.

Many British Standards (BS) – as well as some of the European and International Standards that were adopted as British Standards (BS EN, BS ISO) – are also available in public and university libraries in the United Kingdom. However, BSI makes standards available to these libraries only under licence restrictions which forbid loan, inter-library loan, open-shelf access, and copying of more than 10% of a document by library users. The BSI Library in Chiswick charges visiting members of the public a fee of £10 per hour (contact the Library in advance of the visit on +44 (0)20 8996 7004 or library@bsigroup.com). This service is free to BSI members, students and accredited journalists.

See also

• Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (EU)

External links

• Official website
• BSI Online Shop
• Subscription information to receive British Standards Online