British Standards Institution (BSI)

The British Standards Institution (BSI) is a service organization that produces standards across a wide variety of industry sectors. Its codes of practice and specifications cover management and technical subjects ranging from business continuity management to quality requirements. 

BSI was founded in 1901 in the UK as the Engineering Standards Committee and now operates in more than 140 countries globally. BSI British Standards, part of the BSI Group, acts as the UK's National Standards Body (NSB) and works closely with the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). BSI British Standards has around 31,000 current standards.

The BSI assists organisations wishing to achieve the European CE mark certification. CE is an abbreviation of the French phrase “Conformité Européene,” which means European conformity and is a declaration by the manufacturer that the product meets the requirements of the applicable European directive(s).

Organisations wishing to achieve certification that they are managing risk effectively may work with the BSI to gain certification that they are meeting the ISO/IEC 27001 standard for information security and BS ISO/IEC 27011, an international standard that provides guidelines to support the implementation of information security management in telecommunications organizations.

The BSI It also awards the BSI Kitemark to products that meet its quality standards. Organisations may apply for the BSI Kitemark to certify a product has met certain standards, including IT security standards such as Internet access control products for child safety online.