BSI (British Standards), the west London-based business standards company, has produced a report on how standards support risk managers. Written with Airmic – the UK association for risk and insurance sector managers – the report describes what standards are and how they are developed. In particular, it highlights how standards can support risk management in organisations.
Howard Kerr, Chief Executive of BSI, said: “We know from research that standards make a significant, positive contribution to the success of UK companies. For example: increasing productivity, facilitating innovation, enhancing the quality of products and efficiency of processes, and promoting international trade.”
The recent publication of the revised international standard for risk management, ISO 31000:2018 Risk management: guidelines, “encouraged Airmic to step back and reflect on how standards can help organizations to excel and how they can support risk managers”, says Julia Graham, Deputy CEO and Technical Director at Airmic.
The report: Standards: supporting risk management and adding business value will be launched at Airmic’s annual conference, in Liverpool in June. At the heart of the report is a wide ranging conversation between two experienced risk management practitioners who describe their experience of using standards to support risk management within business, concluding that they help give organizations “systems and frameworks” and can contribute to good enterprise risk management and the success of the business.
Other contributions from the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) and the Independent International Organisation for Certification (IIOC) underline how accredited certification, inspection, testing or measurement services based on standards, can support brokers and underwriters in their management and assessment of risk – as well as giving consumers the assurance that a product or service delivered meets a level of quality and satisfies any legal requirement.
