It is a reality that access to National, European, and International Standards is cost prohibitive for small businesses. With many of our CIAT Chartered Practices meeting the companies house definition of "micro-entities": A turnover of £632,000 or less; £316,000 or less on its balance sheet; and 10 employees or less.
Spending £300 on a standard like BS 8300-2 (Design of an accessible and inclusive built environment) isn't possible.
Recognising the need for small businesses in BSI, the UK's National Standards Body, established a pilot with the Federation of Small Businesses earlier this year. This pilot is a new BSI membership model which provides unlimited, full text view-only, access to 90,000+ British, European, and International Standards on the BSI Knowledge digital library for £360/year (plus VAT). Currently this pilot is exclusive to FSB members.
However, after discussion between our VP-Technical, Practice and Technical Director as well as BSI, CIAT has been invited to poll our CIAT Chartered Practices to determine whether the Institute would be interested in a similar pilot.
If your CIAT Chartered Practice wishes to express an interest, with no obligation, please complete the following survey. The deadline for submitting your interest is 26 April 2024.
If you have any questions, please email technical@ciat.global.