Standards and EU Exit

• The role of National Standards Body in 2021 and beyond
• CEN and CENELEC membership
• CEN and CENELEC voting procedure
• Other standards organisations
• Related information
• Product Regulation – UKCA and designated standards
• Standards and trade
• Contact us

As part of its role as National Standards Body, BSI develops policy positions to reflect the views and interests of its stakeholders, including government.

This leads BSI to seek wherever possible to develop international standards first, maximizing the UK stakeholders’ significant influence on market access conditions globally.

European regional standards are developed where there are no international standards or where there are specific interests in the region that could not be addressed globally.

International and European standards are adopted for the whole of the UK as British Standards, alongside a diminishing proportion of national-only standards that meet purely local needs. These national standards are often developed as precursors to international work and are transferred into international processes in due course.

BSI will continue to promote and enable UK stakeholder leadership in the development of international and European regional standards and optimize the participation of UK stakeholders.

BSI works closely with government departments to support them in their standards needs and advise them how standards can support public policy, including regulation.

In addition to our regular engagement, BSI advises government on standards in trade negotiations. Scott Steedman, BSI’s Director-General, Standards, sits on the Strategic Trade Advisory Group, the International Trade Department’s stakeholder forum on trade as the representative for standards and consumer protection. BSI also takes part in the DIT Technical Barriers to Trade Thematic Working Group. More information on our trade policy activity can be found here.

The CEN and CENELEC General Assemblies, on 25 November 2021 voted overwhelmingly to confirm the British Standards Institution’s (BSI) continued membership of the two associations from 1 January 2022.

This decision follows careful consideration by the CEN and CENELEC members, taking into account the impact of the UK’s exit from the EU and is consistent with the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) agreed between the UK and the EU.

Continued BSI membership provides clarity and confidence for CEN and CENELEC’s stakeholders in the role of standards across Europe. It will help businesses to trade in a settled system and will support the UK’s long-term contribution to European and international standards.  All CEN and CENELEC’s stakeholders, including those from the UK, will continue to participate and contribute to standards development as today.

BSI is classed as a non-EEA member of CEN and CENELEC, which affects a few specific voting situations. In the types of vote listed in subclause 6.1.4 of CEN/CENELEC internal regulations part 2 (e.g. new or amended European standards), weighted voting is applied. In the first stage, votes from all members are counted and the proposal is adopted if the weighted voting criteria are met. There are no changes to the UK in this stage; our weighting remains the same.

However, if the proposal is not adopted in the first stage the votes of only the EEA countries are counted separately. In this situation, the UK’s vote is not counted.

Therefore, if the proposal passes stage 1, all members are obliged to implement it, including BSI. If the proposal fails stage 1 but passes stage 2, all EEA members are obliged to implement it, along with any non-EEA members that voted positively. This means that if BSI voted negatively, and BSI’s vote were not counted toward the final approval of the proposal, it would not be obliged to implement the decision. If BSI voted positively, we would be obliged to implement the decision. If the proposal fails stage 2, there is no further action.

BSI’s membership of ETSI continues and is not undergoing a statute review as membership arrangements were unaffected by the UK’s exit from the EU. BSI’s voting on ETSI ENs has also moved to the non-EEA category.

BSI’s membership of the international standards organisations ISO and IEC is unaffected by the UK’s exit from the EU. BSI does not manage UK activity with ITU, which is the responsibility of UK government.

Product regulation in the UK: UKCA marking and designated standards

Regulations apply for the UK market that update EU CE marking and similar legislation, including general product safety regulation.

The new product regulations split the UK territory into two parts: Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and Northern Ireland. The approach to trade within the UK and devolution is set out in the UK Internal Market Act.

Standards and trade 

For questions related to how standards and/or and the National Standards Body is affected by the UK’s new regulatory regime please contact us here.

For questions linked to certification issues (i.e CE or UKCA marking) please visit this page for more information .