Continuity for standards beyond Brexit

Prime Minister Theresa May announced this week that the 'meaningful vote' – the vote to determine the future direction of Brexit –has been delayed until Tuesday, 12 March. If the Prime Minister's deal is rejected by Parliament, the Prime Minister has offered two further votes: one to rule out a 'no deal' Brexit and one to request an extension to Article 50 that would delay the UK's exit from the EU.

The instability that UK industries face at this time is well publicized, with many organizations making 'no deal' plans. For every industry, compliance and other regulatory issues will be impacted by the UK's exit. In this context, BSI feels that it is important to keep its members aware of the direction of travel for the development and use of standards and reassure them that we will continue to be at the heart of the standards-making process at home and abroad.

As part of BSI's international influence we have agreed a plan that secures BSI's full membership of the European standards organizations CEN and CENELEC post-Brexit. This comes as part of a transition period for the amendment of the organizations' statutes, from the date of exit until the end of 2020, when a permanent solution will be implemented.

BSI sees the decisions taken by the General Assemblies of CEN and CENELEC, which secure BSI's membership, as a pragmatic solution that provides stability for the European standards system while meeting the needs of our stakeholders. More specifically:

• UK experts will continue as chairs, convenors, committee members, and policy experts to work on shaping and maintaining the 20,000 European standards that are managed by CEN and CENELEC; and
• standards users in the UK can continue to be confident that these standards will meet their needs as they will be influenced, as they are now, by UK stakeholders.

CEN and CENELEC members support the proposals, recognizing that although there is an important link between their work and European and national regulation, pan-European technical cooperation in the development and maintenance of standards is primarily a market-led activity.

Membership of the European standards organizations provides UK stakeholders with influence over market access conditions in 33 other European countries. The UK, through BSI, therefore commits to a key role in the creation of European standards.

This course of action has been supported throughout by BSI's stakeholders. BSI's position statement of February 2018 shows the breadth of stakeholder commitment. The UK Government has also shown its support for BSI's continued membership of CEN and CENELEC: through confirmation by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Greg Clark ; through the Government's Brexit White Paper and through the Withdrawal Act and 'no deal' technical notices.

The UK is also influential in standards development beyond Europe, on the global stage, through BSI's ISO and IEC memberships. BSI will continue to contribute to the future global competitiveness of the UK through these memberships, which are not under threat from Brexit.

BSI has been preparing for all scenarios well in advance of 29 March to ensure clarity for our members. Our Brexit team has been in regular contact with stakeholders, with the other CEN and CENELEC members, and with a number of government departments to share our vision for Brexit  and how standards are vital to UK business interests.

Our work has involved monitoring the development of the 'no deal' legislation, including the proposed UK Mark, which would replace CE marking in the case that the UK exits without a deal in place. In this instance, we can reassure members that the same British standards will be used to show conformity with the new UK regulations as in the current EU regime.

We will continue to inform members of developments around Brexit in the weeks to come, through articles as well as on the BSI standards and Brexit web pages. We also have a dedicated email address for queries: europeanpolicy@bsigroup.com.