Written evidence submitted by the British Standards Institution

(UKT0021)

 

 

 

Introduction

 

  1. BSI (the British Standards Institution) is making this submission as the National Standards Body for the United Kingdom. BSI has a public function in support of the UK economy. We bring together stakeholders (including government, industry and consumers) and facilitate the development of “what good looks like”.
  2. As the UK’s National Standards Body, BSI operates in accordance with a Memorandum of Understanding with the UK Government. The MOU notes that standardization is a key factor in support of a number of government policies, including competitiveness, innovation, reduction of trade barriers, fair trading and protection of consumer interests, environmental protection and public procurement. The MOU agrees that standardization is increasingly important for the globalisation of commerce and the convergence of technologies and for international trade, in particular through the World Trade Organization’s Technical Barriers to Trade (WTO TBT) Agreement.
  3. BSI represents the UK view on standards in Europe via the European Standards Organizations CEN and CENELEC and internationally via ISO and IEC. BSI is a member of ETSI (The European Telecommunications Standards Institute) and provides support to DCMS through their membership of ITU (the International Telecommunication Union).

 

The role of standards in embedding trust

  1. Standards are an agreed way of doing something; they capture current good practice through trusted processes involving all relevant stakeholders. They offer a flexible, adaptive and collaborative alternative to regulation by providing common languages, terminologies, guidelines and good practice developed by and for stakeholders.
  2. Standards are developed when there is a market need and through bringing together a diversity of stakeholders. BSI develops standards by following the principles of standardization as noted in BS 0 – A standard for standards[1].
  3. BSI standards have the defining characteristics of:
    1. representing good practice as defined by experts;
    2. development by balanced and broadly representative standing committees that retain responsibility for them indefinitely, and that reach agreement by consensus;
    3. being made subject to unrestricted open consultation; and,
    4. remaining subject to systematic periodic review as to their continuing validity
  4. The majority of documents published as British Standards have their origin in international standards (developed by ISO and IEC) or European standards (developed by CEN and CENELEC, often in partnership with their international counterparts). The remainder are developed exclusively by BSI to meet particular needs in the UK.
  5. Standards are developed through the formal committees and are a collective endeavour that involve a wide range of views from legitimate interests. One of BSI’s objectives is to ensure that the committees fairly represent the range of interests affected by the standard, including businesses, government organizations and consumers. This means that no single supplier or business can create standards that have a single vendor’s interests at its heart. In addition, the inclusivity of standards means that there is no risk of technology lock-in within the supply chain. This long-proven, consensus-based process creates standards that are fit-for-purpose, representative of all stakeholders and have an underpinning bases for trust. Because of this rigor and credibility, standards provide an underpinning framework of trust that allows organisations to participate in global supply chains.
  6. Within BSI there are around 1,200 committees and subcommittees working on active projects at any given time that follow the noted principles of inclusivity and openness. Currently there are a number of committees looking at developing ICT and telecommunication standards that fall within the scope of this inquiry. BSI would be pleased to provide the Select Committee with a list of organisations and Nominating Bodies that sit on the relevant committees if of interest.

The role of government in increasing UK capability

  1. Early capturing of best practice will give the UK an opportunity to provide leadership in setting international standards of good practice globally. Utilising the existing consensus-based standards development mechanism will give government the opportunity to develop a widely accepted solution. By adopting internationally recognised processes of standards development, BSI has the infrastructure and framework to create base documents that can mitigate single vendor dominance or provider lock-in.
  2. Developing early stage best practice and application of standards across complex value chains has a number of advantages for industry;

•                     Allows alignment of business values across complex stakeholder ecosystems and diverse sectors.

•                     It defines sets of actionable outcomes for industry, supported by practical real-world steps and quick wins. Sharing of knowledge, resource, navigation and subject matter expertise facilitation.

•                     Removes friction by tackling and removing industry blockers. Not just technology but process change, procurement, culture and skills. Sharing of knowledge, resource, navigation and subject matter expertise.

  1. BSI would encourage the government to utilize the expertise of its National Standards Body to bring together the complex landscape of stakeholder groups to development consensus-based strategies, and vision and principles of working that can de-risk investment.

 

Background on BSI

 

BSI is the UK’s National Standards Body, incorporated by Royal Charter and responsible independently for preparing British Standards and related publications and for coordinating the input of UK experts to European and international standards committees. BSI has over 115 years of experience in serving the interest of a wide range of stakeholders including government, business and society.

BSI represents the UK view on standards in Europe (via the European Standards Organizations CEN and CENELEC) and internationally (via ISO and IEC). BSI has a globally recognized reputation for independence, integrity and innovation ensuring standards are useful, relevant and authoritative.

BSI is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the national standards-making system not only for the benefit of UK industry and society but also to ensure that standards developed by UK experts meet international expectations of open consultation, stakeholder involvement and market relevance.

British Standards and UK implementations of CEN/CENELEC or ISO/IEC standards are all documents defining best practice, established by consensus. Each standard is kept current through a process of maintenance and review whereby it is updated, revised or withdrawn as necessary.

Standards are designed to set out clear and unambiguous provisions and objectives. Although standards are voluntary and separate from legal and regulatory systems, they can be used to support or complement legislation.

Standards are developed when there is a defined market need through consultation with stakeholders and a rigorous development process. National committee members represent their communities in order to develop standards and related documents. They include representatives from a range of bodies, including government, business, consumers, academic institutions, social interests, regulators and trade unions.

 

(June 2020)

 

 

[1] https://www.bsigroup.com/Documents/standards/guide-to-standards/BSI-BS-0-2016.pdf