§ Mr. HendryTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what plans he has to review the monopoly status of the British Standards Institute in issuing kitemarks and extend the powers to the organisations entitled to issue BS 5750 certificates.
§ Mr. Leigh[holding answer 26 October 1992]: The Government have no plans to review the arrangements under which BSI quality assurance, BSIQA, licenses the use of the kitemark. BSIQA is the financially independent certification business of BSI and the kitemark is its registered certification trade mark. It therefore has sole right to grant the use of its own mark in the same way as the owner of any other certification trade mark.
The kitemark denotes that a product conforms to an agreed British, European or international standard; and that the system by which it has been manufactured has been subject to assessment and surveillance by BSIQA so as to ensure consistency of production. Any certification body is entitled to register and licence the use of its own mark, in accordance with these same standards and procedures. Indeed, some have already done so.