Since the EU referendum the RIBA has advocated for the UK’s continued, close alignment with European standards in construction and the built environment as a crucial component of the Brexit deal and the UK’s future relationship with the European Union. Last week, the British Standards Institute (BSI) announced that it has reached an agreement with its counterparts in the European standards organisations, European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC), to ensure its full membership and participation in the European standards system post-Brexit. This agreement will see the UK retain its role in the European and international standards system after Britain leaves the EU and allow British industry to continue influencing and shaping standards used in Europe and around the world.
Standards have been a significant driver of the UK’s reputation for excellence in the built environment and they have supported practices to grow through supporting consumer protection, facilitating cross-border trade and encouraging innovation, technological development and environmental protection. This agreement will ensure that the UK, through the BSI, will continue to play a leading role in the international standards system through its membership of CEN and CENELEC – as the RIBA has called for since the referendum.
With the UK importing two thirds of the construction products it uses from elsewhere in the European Union, RIBA members identified the retention of common product standards with the EU after Brexit as a top priority in this year’s Global by Design 2018 survey. Members highlighted the risk of divergence from the European standards system leaving the UK in a halfway house – unable to influence the development of standards but also unable to compete with the cost of products from outside the EU. Architects warned against using Brexit to initiate a short-sighted race to the bottom on standards that would compromise the UK’s reputation for supporting the highest quality in the built environment – a reputation that will now be maintained and strengthened by continued participation in the European standards system after Brexit.
In June, we wrote to the Business Secretary, Greg Clark – in partnership with the Royal Town Planning Institute, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and Chartered Institute of Building – to highlight the importance of the European standards system and make the case for supporting the BSI’s continued membership of CEN and CENELEC. This is one of the four priorities that the four institutes agreed in their Joint statement on Brexit in the aftermath of the EU referendum. We have continued to lobby for alignment with the European standards system in partnership with the other built environment institutes, and welcomed the Government’s position in its Brexit White Paper that it would seek alignment on standards as an important step towards giving the sector the certainty it has called for.
This news will give designers, manufacturers and contractors confidence that work done to provide clarity on product specification, and to sustain high quality product supply and export market position will not be lost to standards uncertainty and complex standards mapping exercises. It will be particularly important for architects who work on projects outside the UK, who can have confidence that the UK will continue to both adopt and influence EN and ISO standards, which are widely applied in many international markets.
Commenting on the announcement, Dieter Bentley-Gockmann, Director at EPR Architects and chair of RIBA Regulations and Standards Group, said: “Confirmation and certainty that the role of the BSI and the status of British Standards will remain unaffected post-Brexit is extremely welcome. At a time when quality in the built environment is subject to particular scrutiny, it is reassuring to know that the highly regarded British, European and International standards upon which we all rely on a daily basis to produce high quality and technically robust UK architecture will remain in full effect and continue to develop and evolve in unison.”
