The National Security Inspectorate (NSI) in June launched the ‘Wall of Shame’; a page on the NSI website to publicise the names of organisations who falsely claim to be NSI approved. That’s prompted positive feedback and discussion. NSI points to a high success rate in addressing misuse of logo complaints. Through direct contact with those making misrepresentations and with the assistance of Trading Standards and the Advertising Standards Authority, most misuse of logo issues are addressed and rectified quickly and co-operatively, the inspectorate says. The ‘Wall of Shame’ seeks to address those more persistent offenders.
It’s a testament to the profile of the brand, the NSI adds, that a number of organisations providing services in the security and fire sectors falsely claim to be NSI approved, highlighting the commercial advantages to displaying the NSI badge. However, this is misleading for users and is unfair on those genuine organisations that take the time and money in maintaining their NSI approval by submitting themselves to regular NSI audits. NSI takes this matter very seriously and by continuing to strictly monitor and ‘name and shame’ these falsely-claiming companies, NSI hopes to protect the users as well as NSI approved companies.
Chris Pinder, External Affairs Director for NSI said: “We wanted to demonstrate to our approved companies, and the end-users, that we take abuse of the NSI logo extremely seriously. Those who hold NSI approval have worked hard to achieve it and are justly proud of the badge. We wanted to demonstrate to them that we will do all in our power to prevent any dilution in the value of the NSI badge. It will be a measure of our success if the numbers of companies listed on the Wall of Shame are kept to a minimum.”
NSI encourages approved companies, the industry and the public to report any instances of companies falsely proclaiming NSI approval or misrepresentation. The Wall of Shame email address to report cases: [email protected].
Visit http://www.nsi.org.uk/information-centre/wall-of-shame/
Notes
The National Security Inspectorate (NSI) is an approvals and certification body that audits companies providing home security, business security and fire safety services. To find out more about NSI: www.nsi.org.uk
