BS 10125 explained: the Kitemark for bodyshops

BS 10125 is the British Standard for vehicle damage repair processes. Its full title is BS 10125:2022, Automotive services. Vehicle damage repair processes. Specification. It doesn't tell you how to fix a particular car. It sets out how a repair business should work: preparing the vehicle, repairing it to a recognised method, using competent people and the right equipment, and keeping records that prove it.

It started life as PAS 125 in 2006, became a British Standard in 2014, and was amended in 2016. The current edition was published on 30 November 2022 as a full revision of BS 10125:2014+A1:2016.

The standard and the Kitemark are two different things. Anyone can buy the standard and work to it. The BSI Kitemark is BSI's certification that an independent assessor has audited your site against it. When a work provider asks whether you have BS 10125, it usually wants to see the Kitemark or a similar certificate.

BSI lists these changes in the 2022 edition:

• A clearer scope.
• Revised options for proving a person's competence.
• Guidance on replacement parts, in line with the VRA UK Standard for Reclaimed Parts.
• Clearer rules on subcontracting and process management.
• Changes to how a repairer may claim conformity.
• Updated guidance on ADAS and electric vehicles.
• Repairers can no longer develop their own in-house repair methods. You repair to the manufacturer's method or another recognised, researched one.

That last change matters most day to day. Our guide to repair methods and ADAS calibration covers where to find methods and what the insurers expect for ADAS.

The standard covers repair processes at a fixed site or by a mobile service. BSI's brochure groups its requirements under seven headings:

• Vehicle preparation and safety.
• Repair processes and putting systems back as they were.
• Personnel competence.
• Tools, equipment and consumables.
• Repair management and process control.
• Complaints.
• Information for claims of conformity.

It applies to glazing, body panels and mechanical parts. It leaves out standalone windscreen repair (which has its own standard, BS AU 242), motorcycles, three-wheelers and vehicles over 5 tonnes gross vehicle weight. The Kitemark covers vehicles up to 5 tonnes and less than 40 years old, and BSI says manufacturers, insurers and work providers accept it.

You aren't certified for everything at once. Your certificate lists the capability task codes you've been audited for, so a shop that sublets its glass and mechanical work can leave those out. The equipment each code needs is in Annex A of the standard.

BSI sets out five steps:

1. 1

   Buy the standard

   Read BS 10125:2022 itself, not a summary. It's sold by BSI.
2. 2

   Run a gap analysis

   Compare how you work now with what the standard asks. BSI offers an optional pre-certification gap audit.
3. 3

   Make the improvements

   Fill the gaps: written processes, staff competence records, equipment for the capability codes you want, and how you manage subcontractors and complaints.
4. 4

   Prepare for the assessment

   Have about a month of completed job packs ready, and be ready to show live repairs.
5. 5

   The assessment

   A BSI assessor audits the site. Once you're certified, you're listed in BSI's directory.

BSI doesn't publish its fees, so ask it for a quote for your site and the codes you need. The certificate fee isn't the only cost. Budget for the standard itself, any gap audit, staff assessments (see the IMI prices below), equipment you don't yet have, and the time it takes to write up your processes.

We found no current count of certified sites either. The most recent figure we could find is from 2011, when more than 800 bodyshops, about a quarter of the UK total, held the Kitemark. Treat that as history, not today's number.

No law makes you hold BS 10125, and we found no insurer that publishes it as a fixed entry rule. In practice it's the usual ticket into insurance work. BSI says insurer networks, fleet repair contracts and accident management companies typically require it as a minimum, and the networks' own published criteria point the same way:

BSI also describes how joining a network tends to go. You send a digital pack with your BS 10125 certificate, possibly an Audatex or GT Motive user ID, and photos of reception and the workshop. The network checks whether it needs a repairer in your area; where it already has three shops in a town, you may go on a waiting list. Then comes a site audit, and often a trial as a reserve repairer on two or three jobs a week, with fast key-to-key times and few supplementaries leading to more work.

BS 10125 expects proof that the people doing each stage of a repair are competent. One way to show it is IMI Accident Repair Accreditation, the scheme the trade still calls ATA. Each discipline has its own levels and a minimum length of experience:

Candidates sit a theory test and practical assessments. In the IMI's 2012 leaflet, accreditation lasted three years, renewed either by full reassessment or by update modules along the way, and panel candidates needed a current welding certificate. The IMI's current pages don't state the period, so check when you book. Prices are set by each assessment centre. Two examples:

• Nottingham College, IMI paint: £1,035 for full accreditation, £633 for reaccreditation and £173 for a pre-training day.
• Blackpool and The Fylde College, senior paint: £892 for two days, with a practical and an online multiple-choice test.

Accredited staff can join the IMI Professional Register, which is open to IMI members at associate grade and above and to holders of a valid IMI achievement. Staying on it takes at least 90 CPD credits over three years. The register is searchable by name, business or location, so customers and work providers can check your people.

Thatcham Research's Automotive Academy trains MET, paint, panel and damage assessment staff, plus electric vehicle and ADAS courses, and says its curriculum includes the accreditations needed to stay BS 10125 compliant. Thatcham says it has trained more than 5,000 people since 2021.

Training your own staff may be the only way to get them. The IMI says shortages are most severe in body repair and paint roles, and more than 70% of repair and salvage employers report skills shortages. In England, these apprenticeship standards cover the trade:

Under the 2026 to 2027 funding rules, a small employer that doesn't pay the levy has the training paid in full, up to the cap, for apprentices aged 16 to 24, and pays 5% for those 25 and over. There's £1,000 each for the employer and the provider for a 16 to 18-year-old, and a new £2,000 payment for non-levy employers who take on a 16 to 24-year-old starting from 1 October 2026. These rules are for England; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own schemes.