British Standard Specifications

[Geoffrey Beird]

BritishStandards (BS) are the standards produced by the BSI Group which is incorporated under a royal charter and which is formally designated as the national standards body (NSB) for the UK.[1] The BSI Group produces British Standards under the authority of the charter, which lays down as one of the BSI's objectives to:[2]

Set up standards of quality for goods and services, and prepare and promote the general adoption of British Standards and schedules in connection therewith and from time to time to revise, alter and amend such standards and schedules as experience and circumstances require.

"British Standards" means formal consensus standards as set out in BS 0-1 paragraph 3.2 and based upon the principles of standardisation recognised inter alia in European standardisation policy.

BSI Group 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.

The BSI Group as a whole does not produce British Standards, as standards work within the BSI is decentralized. The governing board of BSI establishes a Standards Board. The Standards Board does little apart from setting up sector boards (a sector in BSI parlance being a field of standardization such as ICT, quality, agriculture, manufacturing, or fire). Each sector board, in turn, constitutes several technical committees. It is the technical committees that, formally, approve a British Standard, which is then presented to the secretary of the supervisory sector board for endorsement of the fact that the technical committee has indeed completed a task for which it was constituted.[5]

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. BSI Group 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.

PAS documents are a flexible and rapid standards development model 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 six to nine 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 standard. The term PAS was originally an abbreviation for "product approval specification", a name which was subsequently changed to "publicly available specification". However, according to BSI, not all PAS documents are structured as specifications and the term is now sufficiently well established not to require any further amplification.

Copies of British Standards are sold at the BSI Online Shop[9] or can be accessed via subscription to British Standards Online (BSOL).[10] 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.

British Standards, including European and international adoptions, are available in many university and public libraries that subscribe to the BSOL platform. Librarians and lecturers at UK-based subscribing universities have full access rights to the collection while students can copy/paste and print but not download a standard.[citation needed] Up to 10% of the content of a standard can be copy/pasted for personal or internal use and up to 5% of the collection made available as a paper or electronic reference collection at the subscribing university. Because of their reference material status standards are not available for interlibrary loan. Public library users in the UK may have access to BSOL on a view-only basis if their library service subscribes to the BSOL platform. Users may also be able to access the collection remotely if they have a valid library card and the library offers secure access to its resources.

BS11:1985 is a British Standard about specifications and sections of flat-bottom railway rails. This standard specifies the requirements for the quality of steel, dimensions, tolerances, and technical condition of railway rails of 24.8 kg/m and greater linear mass.

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The British Standards Institution publishes standards and provides a range of books, self-assessment tools, conferences and training services. It also represents UK economic and social interests in European and international standards organisations.

BSI defines a standard as 'something that is generally accepted'. British Standard (BS) publications are technical specifications or practices that can be used as guidance for the production of a product, carrying out a process or providing a service.

The BSI Kitemark, first introduced in 1903, is commonly found on a range of products, including construction products. It indicates that the product has been independently tested by BSI to confirm that it complies with relevant British Standards, and that BSI have licensed the product manufacturer to use the Kitemark. Manufacturers have to pay to have their products and manufacturing processes tested, and these tests are repeated regularly to confirm continued compliance. See Kitemark for more information.

Publicly available specifications (PAS) are fast-track standards, specifications, codes of practice or guidelines developed by sponsoring organisations, under the guidance of BSI, to meet an immediate market need. Within 2 years, they are reviewed to assess whether they should be revised, withdrawn, or whether they should become formal British Standards or international standards. See Publicly available specifications for more information.

The specifier is offered five approaches to the specification of concrete, with the standard describing the correct way of compiling specifications for designated, designed, prescribed, standardized prescribed, and proprietary concretes.

This part of BS 8500 gives detailed guidance for the specifier, including advice on exposure classes for durability, aggregate classes, intended working life and consistence etc., presented as a series of tables with accompanying explanatory text.

This part of BS 8500 specifies a number of basic requirements for concrete and its constituent materials, and gives specific requirements relating to the types of concrete listed in BS 8500-1. It also specifies requirements relating to delivery, conformity testing, production control and transport.

This standard gives UK national provisions where required or permitted by BS EN 206, and also covers materials, methods of testing and procedures that are outside the scope of BS EN 206, but within UK national experience. The requirements in this part of BS 8500 are given for defined materials with an established or accepted adequate performance in UK conditions.

The Concrete Centre provides material, design and construction guidance. Our aim is to enable all those involved in the design, use and performance of concrete and masonry to realise the potential of these materials.

Maxco British Standard chain is manufactured to the same high-quality specifications as our ANSI chain. Solid bushings and solid rollers dramatically increase chain life. Manufactured following ISO R606, Maxco British standard chains are compatible with British standard B.S. 228 and German standard DIN 8187. Chains are supplied in 10-foot lengths. Attachment chains and stainless steel chains are available.

Asbestos removal is a high risk industry requiring the user of specialist equipment to minimise the risks to the health of those workers carrying out the work. BS 8520 is the British Standard ensuring this specialist equipment meets the quality standards required.

This provides the asbestos removal industry with a specification for equipment used in the controlled wetting of asbestos-containing materials. It promotes the manufacture of equipment and materials that will effectively wet asbestos-containing materials and suppress asbestos fibres both during and after the asbestos removal process. It specifies requirements for equipment for the controlled wetting of asbestos containing materials (ACMs) by injection or spraying of liquid to suppress the release of airborne asbestos. It applies to the wetting of ACMs by multipoint injection of sprayed coatings, insulating board, thermal insulation and coatings on pipes, tanks and vessels; spraying with low-pressure spray heads of insulating board and other materials less than 10mm thick. BS 8520-1 is based on PAS 60-1:2004 which is now withdrawn.

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