Posted by Steve Nicholas on September 25, 2005, 3:42 pm, in reply to "KITE MARK"
As promised, I have tackled my friend on this issue. I must say that he is not directly involved with the department dealing with this project, but he has given the following information:
BSI operates under a Royal Charter and is a not for "profit making" organisation but has to fund itself by charging for its services. It consists of two divisions, one of which is Standards and the other is Management Systems. Standards write the standards and Management Systems assess compliance.
The Kite Mark scheme for garages would have been instigated by an approach from the trade concerned and possibly a consortium of bodies associated with the motor trade. BSI would not attempt to introduce such a system without there being a demand for it since they need a financial return for their involvement.
A similar scheme was attempted for the building trade but it was found that defining a standard that you could not drive a bus through was almost impossible and so the project was abandoned. It could be argued that our trade is less diverse in scope than the building trade and a standard could be more easily defined.
My friend says that it is more likely that larger organisations would sign-up because of the costs involved. (Kwik Fit could get the Kite Mark!!)
I will see if I can get a look at the definition of the standards in PAS(Publically Available Specification)80 and may be it will give us more of an idea of what is involved.