Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of whether it is in the public interest that safety standards held by the British Standards Institution may not be accessed without payment; and what plans he has to make those standards freely available.

The British Standards Institution (BSI) is a private body appointed by Royal Charter. It is a non-profit distributing company with profits being re-invested back into the business. Like most private standards bodies, the cost of producing standards is recouped by the subsequent sales of those standards. However, many public libraries provide free access to the BSI standards catalogue.