---

National Standardisation Strategic Framework

I am pleased to announce that the benefits of standards to UK business, innovation and the wider economy can be quantified for the first time. A programme of studies commissioned by the National Standardisation Strategic Framework (NSSF), have brought together the analysis of findings from the University of Surrey, Nottingham University Business School and the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research in Germany. The principal findings of the report show that:"formal standards contribute £2.5 billion to the growth of the UK economy annually as a means of spreading knowledge and technology;""through this role, since 1948 the benefit of formal standards to UK GDP exceeds £75 billion;""standards enable 13 per cent of the growth in labour productivity; and""standards are emphasised as an enabler of innovation.""The report can be found on www.dti.gov.uk/iese/The–Empirical–Economics–of–Standards.pdf and hard copies will be made available in the parliamentary Libraries." The National Standardisation Strategic Framework (NSSF) was developed by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the British Standards Institution (BSI) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) to provide a platform for increasing the awareness, use and understanding of standards and standardisation in the UK. This research quantifies the impact of standards on the success of UK business of all types. As the national standards body for the UK, the British Standards Institution plays an important role in enabling innovation and technology transfer within national and international markets. This creation of synergies is found to accelerate the speed to market of products and services which allows businesses to keep ahead of the game in an ever-changing marketplace. For many years business opinion has tended to divide regarding the genuine impact of standards. While many firms have embraced standards as a valuable tool for strategic management, others argue that their presence has acted as a halt on business freedom and competitiveness. For that reason I commend to Parliament this research and urge UK industry to make business standards a boardroom issue in order to provide tangible assurances of progress across all aspects of commerce.