Introduction
This article contains highlights from our monthly metrology newsletter; read on to find out more about:
- The Government’s confirmation of the BICs eligibility scheme.
- Why August and September are a good time to undertake your audit and achieve certification.
- An update on IS0 9001: 2026
- A quarterly update from us
- A brief look at the history of calibration
INDUSTRY NEWS
An update on ISO 9001: 2026
The newly revised Standard ISO 9001: 2026 is due to be released in September 2026. At the UKMB, we have already been preparing to ensure your smooth transition from the current ISO 9001: 2015 to the new ISO 9001: 2026. As a part of this preparation, the UKMB will be formally assessed by UKAS from September 2026, thereby facilitating our continued “Accredited Certification” services across industry and commerce.
In the meantime, rest assured your existing ISO 9001: 2015 certification will remain valid throughout the three-year transition process. Over the coming month, the UKMB will be providing regular client updates with particular reference to ensuring that our audit team can deliver the ISO 9001: 2026 certification service early in 2027 – with existing clients being certificated by mid 2028.
What happens if we want to achieve ISO 9001: 2026 certification now?
If you want and need to achieve ISO 9001 certification before September or during the transition period, you can still be certified under the old standard. Global rules guarantee a 3-year grace period, giving you plenty of time to upgrade to the new standard.
Our advice would be: don’t delay, as achieving ISO 9001 certification demonstrates that you have a robust and recognisable quality management system in place, helping you create a culture of continuous improvement, mitigate risk, manufacture safe products and create growth opportunities.
Update on the BICS Scheme
Rising energy costs for businesses have been a hot topic for discussion this year and have increased pressure on businesses due to the level of expenditure required to pay for electricity. As part of the Government’s update earlier this month on the UK’s industrial strategy, it was confirmed that up to 10,000 manufacturing firms could see a reduction of up to 25% from April 2027.
There has been much confusion around who is eligible for BICs, but the Energy Advice Hub states that:
‘…To be eligible, a business must operate in an eligible sector and manufacture at least one eligible product. These sectors are energy intensive and linked to industries the government has earmarked for growth, such as clean energy, advanced manufacturing, digital technologies, defence and life sciences. They include automotive, aerospace, steel and pharmaceuticals, but a full list of eligible sectors and products can be found on the government website. These have been defined using SIC codes and HS codes respectively.’
To get clarity on eligibility for BICs, you can read the full article from the Energy Advice Hub by clicking the link here.
The UK’s Industrial Strategy: One Year On
Earlier this month the government published a brand new white paper- Delivering the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy: Year One.
The original strategy was announced in June 2025 and outlined opportunities for growth and investment in high-growth sectors, including advanced manufacturing.
The vision for manufacturing was to ‘make the UK the best place in the world to start, grow and invest in… manufacturing by 2035.’ One year on, the report states that the vision is working and businesses are increasing their adoption of AI, automation and digitalisation to build resilience.
The report makes for interesting reading, and we shared our highlights from the report with you earlier this month via email. If you missed it, you can read the highlights and find out what this means for Legal Metrology on our blog by clicking here.
UKMB’s News and Advice
Why August or September is the best time to achieve UKMB Certification
Q3 is often a quieter month for manufacturing, with August traditionally the quietest month due to school holidays, summer working hours, and the closure of many factories in Europe.
It’s also a quieter period for us, here at the UKMB, as many clients prefer to undertake their audits at other times of the year due to staff availability, downtime after the busy first half of the year and of course, time to prepare for a busier Q4.
However, being audited during a quieter period actually has several benefits (and that’s not just because we have more availability). Here are 5 reasons why August and September are the perfect time to achieve certification or transfer your existing certifications.
1) More time to plan: A slowdown in production will give you more time to properly plan and prepare for your audit, allowing you to focus on testing your equipment, ensuring your documentation is centralised, and ensuring your whole team is up to speed on what will happen on the day.
2) More cost-effective: Being audited during a busy period can often mean longer hours, the need for additional staff or less focus on the audit because it has to fit in with other things. Achieving certification during the quieter periods can prevent this and give you time to implement any recommendations and focus on the positive outcomes,
3) Reduced risk during busy periods: Having the correct certifications in place and ensuring everything is up to date during the quieter periods will put you ahead of the competition. Being audited in August or September will give you more time to review and put you less at risk of error during those busy periods when you can’t afford to cease production or operate at a reduced capacity.
4) You’ll be ready to bid for new contracts: The summer season is quieter when it comes to new business contracts. Using this time to ensure you have the correct certifications in place to be able to bid for new business in the future will ensure you are good to go when new tenders do come out.
5) Our availability: We do our best to accommodate everyone. However, our auditors and technical advisors are extremely booked up for October- December, which means any applications submitted for audits during this period may be delayed. Submitting an early application means we will be able to accommodate you and ensure your audit and certification is undertaken as quickly as possible.
As a reminder, we are a UKAS Accredited Conformity Assessment Body, meaning that any certifications issued by us are fully compliant with marketplace regulations and recognised internationally.
We offer ISO 9001, UKCA and CE+UKNI, covering the following Modules and Standards:
- NAWI Module D & Module D1
- MIR Module A2, Module D, Module D1, Module E1
- Weights & Measures Act 1985, Section 11A.
If you would like to find out more about our certification services or submit an application for certification, you can send us an email, give us a call or submit your application for certification here.
Quarterly Update
July has involved a lot of preparing for the new ISO 9001 Standard and getting to grips with the Product Safety and Metrology Bill. It also offered us an opportunity to reflect on the last quarter and how much the UKMB has grown since our incorporation in February 2022, and we are pleased to announce that to date we have:
- An 84% market share for the Weights & Measures Act 1985, Section 11A (Approved Verifiers).
- We have 30 clients that we certify for Section 11A.
- We are now the number 1. Conformity Assessment Body in our industry sector, certifying the most Approved Manufacturers for NAWI and MIR.
- Overall, we have a 33% market share.
This is great news for us, but also demonstrates the quality of our audits and the level of service we offer to our clients.
A Reintroduction to two of our Auditors
Of course, we couldn’t do such a great job without our auditors, so this month we wanted to reintroduce two of them.
Damian Chester
Damian joined the UKMB team in April 2024. He is a former police detective turned Trading Standards Officer. Damian specialises in Weights and Measures, Product Safety, Investigations and Regulating Markets. He also has a BSI certificate as a lead auditor for ISO 9001 quality management.
Damian enjoys advising businesses on what they need to do to comply with the law and helping them to achieve that, as well as offering guidance on how they can achieve a higher level of compliance. As a former detective, he loves crime dramas and has been known to host the occasional murder mystery evening.
Brian Tildsley
Brian was appointed as an auditor for UKMB in October 2022 and is one of our original auditing team. Brian has almost 60 years of experience in the industry, covering manufacturing design and latterly managing Type approvals of instruments worldwide. He previously worked at the National Measurement Office covering QM auditing of client management systems for NAWI Module D and MIR.
Brian is semi-retired, and as one of our more experienced auditors, he knows there is no one-size-fits-all approach to certification.
Damian and Brian are both well-versed in helping businesses understand what they need to do to achieve the correct certifications. Ensuring all your audits come with an implied level of advice and guidance to ensure you achieve the highest level of compliance, both now and in the future.
Please note that we are now taking bookings for the following UKAS-accredited certifications.
ISO 9001, UKCA and CE+UKNI, covering the following Modules and Standards:
- NAWI Module D & Module D1
- MIR Module A2, Module D, Module D1, Module E1
- Weights & Measures Act 1985, Section 11A.
If you do have any questions regarding achieving any of the above certifications for your weighing and measuring equipment, or if you would like to submit an application for certification, then do get in touch. Subject to the scope of the audit, we aim to have you certified in as little as 4-6 weeks.