The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical science laboratory programs that include nanoscale science and technology, engineering, information technology, neutron research, material measurement, and physical measurement. From 1901 to 1988, the agency was named the National Bureau of Standards.
Metrology is the scientific study of measurement. It establishes a common understanding of units, crucial in linking human activities. Modern metrology has its roots in the French Revolution's political motivation to standardise units in France when a length standard taken from a natural source was proposed. This led to the creation of the decimal-based metric system in 1795, establishing a set of standards for other types of measurements. Several other countries adopted the metric system between 1795 and 1875; to ensure conformity between the countries, the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) was established by the Metre Convention. This has evolved into the International System of Units (SI) as a result of a resolution at the 11th General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) in 1960.
The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is the national measurement standards laboratory of the United Kingdom. It sets and maintains physical standards for British industry.
The Government of Jersey is the executive body of the States of Jersey and is the central government of the Bailiwick of Jersey. The government is led by the Chief Minister, who nominates all the remaining ministers, all elected by the States Assembly.
The Competition Commission was a non-departmental public body responsible for investigating mergers, markets and other enquiries related to regulated industries under competition law in the United Kingdom. It was a competition regulator under the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). It was tasked with ensuring healthy competition between companies in the UK for the ultimate benefit of consumers and the economy.
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada is a department of the Government of Canada. ISED is responsible for a number of the federal government's functions in regulating industry and commerce, promoting science and innovation, and supporting economic development. The department was known as Industry Canada (IC) prior to 2015.
Forfás was the national policy advisory board for enterprise, trade, science, technology and innovation in Ireland. The agency was established in January 1994 under the Industrial Development Act, 1993 and was run by a board appointed by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, to whom the agency was responsible. Forfás was dissolved on 1 August 2014 and its functions were transferred to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Enterprise Ireland, the Industrial Development Authority and the Health and Safety Authority.
Trading Standards are the local authority departments with the United Kingdom, formerly known as Weights and Measures, that enforce consumer protection legislation.
The International Organization of Legal Metrology, is an intergovernmental organisation that was created in 1955 to promote the global harmonisation of the legal metrology procedures that underpin and facilitate international trade.
Metrication, is the act or process of converting to the metric system of measurement. The United Kingdom, through voluntary and mandated laws have metricated most of government, industry, commerce, and scientific research to the metric system, however the previous measurent system is still used in society. Imperial units remain mandated by law to be used without metric units for speed and distance road signs, and the sizes of cider and beer sold by the glass, returnable milk containers and precious metals.
A regulatory agency or independent agency is a government authority that is responsible for exercising autonomous dominion over some area of human activity in a licensing and regulating capacity.
The National Engineering Laboratory (NEL) was originally one of several large government-funded public research laboratories in the UK, staffed by scientists and engineers of the Scientific Civil Service. Other such laboratories include the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC), the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and the Transport Research Establishment (TRL). NEL was established in 1948 at Thorntonhall under the name Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory (MERL), in the village of the same name near East Kilbride, Glasgow, Scotland.
Measurement Canada is a special operating agency of the Government of Canada's Innovation, Science and Economic Development portfolio, in the Small Business, Tourism and Marketplace Services sector. The agency's mandate is to ensure the integrity and accuracy of trade measurement in Canada, through enforcement and administration of federal acts and regulations.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) was a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It was created by the Gordon Brown premiership on 5 June 2009 by the merger of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. It was disbanded by the Theresa May premiership on the creation of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 14 July 2016.
An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or Northern Ireland Executive. Executive agencies are "machinery of government" devices distinct both from non-ministerial government departments and non-departmental public bodies, each of which enjoy legal and constitutional separation from ministerial control. The model has been applied in several other countries.
Following the 2010 United Kingdom general election, the UK Government under the Cameron–Clegg coalition announced plans to curb public spending through the abolition of a large number of quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations (quangos). This was styled in the national press as a "bonfire of the quangos", making reference to Girolamo Savonarola's religiously inspired Bonfire of the Vanities.
From the beginning of 2015, the Centre for Metrology (MIKES) (Finnish: Mittatekniikan keskus; Swedish: Mätteknikcentralen) formerly the Centre for Metrology and Accreditation has been part of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. As the National Metrology Institute of Finland, MIKES is responsible for the implementation and development of the national measurement standards system and realisation of the SI units in Finland. MIKES designates other National Standards Laboratories in Finland. Moreover, MIKES performs research in metrology, i.e., in measurement science. MIKES’s customers include both Finnish and international companies as well as the public sector. Other national metrology institutes are for example PTB (Germany), NPL (UK), NMIJArchived 2012-11-08 at the Wayback Machine (Japan), NIST (USA), and Główny Urząd Miar (Poland). As a part of VTT MIKES operates under the administrative domain of the Ministry of Employment and the Economy.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the principal competition regulator in the United Kingdom. It is a non-ministerial government department in the United Kingdom, responsible for strengthening business competition and preventing and reducing anti-competitive activities. The CMA launched in shadow form on 1 October 2013 and began operating fully on 1 April 2014, when it assumed many of the functions of the previously existing Competition Commission and Office of Fair Trading, which were abolished. The CMA also has consumer protection responsibilities and will also be taking on new digital markets regulation responsibilities in late 2024 under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.
Reducing administrative burdens – effective inspection and enforcement is a March 2005 UK publication produced under businessman Philip Hampton. The UK Statutory Code of Practice for Regulators is based on its recommendations with the purpose to promote efficient and effective approaches to regulatory inspection and enforcement.
The Office for Product Safety and Standards is part of the Department for Business and Trade of the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the safety of consumer products, and the regulation of measurement standards. It was part of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy until that department's dissolution in February 2023.
