The British Standards Institution (BSI) was established in 1901 as the Engineering Standards Committee. A Royal Charter was granted in 1929, with the organization's aims and objectives including: 

• promoting trade - by developing common industrial standards;
• reducing waste - by simplifying production and distribution;
• protecting the consumer - through the use of licensed marks to identify conformity to standards.

The British Standards Institution was adopted as the organization name in 1931. BSI has a Memorandum of Understanding with the UK Government, which establishes the position of BSI as the recognized UK National Standards Body.

BSI’s ESSAC (Electrotechnical Standardization Strategic Advisory Council) is the national committee of the IEC for the UK. 

BSI is a non-profit distributing organization and offers global services in the linked fields of standardization, systems assessment, product certification, training and advisory services.

The BSI catalog contains over 50,000 standards in PDF format, of which 31,000 are current. It includes standards of UK origin, European standards from CEN/CENELEC and international standards from ISO and IEC which have been adopted in the UK. BSI standards cover building and civil engineering, materials and chemicals, electrotechnology, consumer products and services, healthcare, management systems and information technology.

BSI is the business standards company that helps organisations all over the world make excellence a habit. For more than a century we have been challenging mediocrity and complacency to help embed excellence into the way people and products work. That means showing businesses how to improve performance, reduce risk and achieve sustainable growth. As a global leader in helping organisations improve, our clients range from high profile brands to small, local companies in 150 countries worldwide.