ISO/BSI progress

The BSI British Standards risk management committee has completed a second round of consultation on its UK risk management ‘code of practice,’ the BS 31100.

The UK representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) initially said it wanted to publish the standard in February or March 2008. After months of drafting, editing and public comment it is now thought the document will be ready for the second quarter of this year.

There are already a multitude of risk management standards as well as around 27,000 British standards on other subjects. Julia Graham, chief risk officer at DLA Piper, and AIRMIC’s representative on the committee, explained why there was a need for another one: ‘We felt that all those standards that had gone before failed to hit the mark. We wanted to provide something at the top of the pyramid that brought all of the standards together.’ When it’s completed, BSI 31100 will sit alongside the ISO’s own risk management standard.

Graham said the committee was working hard to add value to businesses and promote the positive side of risk. She was speaking at a conference hosted by the BSI. Arguing the case for standards,

Philip Dunne MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Corporate Governance Group, said: ‘Self regulation does work and that is why standards are to be encouraged. I believe regulation can be tempered. When the Government sees that industry is minded to regulate itself, it is easier to show that regulations should be based along these lines.’