We used to have a Standard in the UK, but alas no longer due to "non
participation by the beekeeping world" (to stay in force a British
Technical Standard must have an active participating committee from the
industry involved). The old BS has now been struck from the BS records.
It was quite good, outlining box sizes and frame sizes, foundation sizes
etc and of course people still use sme of the dimensions, however there
were areas missing or at least suspect and I suspect the folk memories
and faded BS copies are getting rarer and rarer.
It still surprises me how much variation there is in basics such as e.g.
frame top bar width - the correct width is 1 and 1/16" for 1and 3/8"
frame spacing, many UK suppliers make the top bars 7/8" (except on
"large" frames where they provide the larger bar- the bees always
attempt to build comb between these  narrow bars, similarly with bottom
bars where notched wider bars allow the bees to keep things so much
neater.
We certainly needed a Standard in UK, having at least 7 hive types to
contend with - British National, WBC(a twin walled aberration),both
bottom bee space, Smith (the Scottish top bee space entry-designed for
carrying up heathery hillsides for heather migration) British Commercial
(the UK "large" hive-bottom bee space but sometimes top ), Wormit(a
rebated edge wall hive -almost impossible to get into once the bees had
glued-up) and of course the American Langstroths and Dadants. There are
innuberable others (I confess to having made one myself-a "deep" Smith
with Commercial frames) Only the Wormit seems to have truly died a
death.
Hive inventing seems to be an endemic disease in the UK.
Woodenware standards are of course influenced by the sawmill trade -I
believe the USA standard for a dressed (planed) 1" pine board ended up
being "nailed down" at 3/4" (a bit thin by modern Consumer Association
thinking) whereas that for cedar ended up at 7/8"- since hive dimensions
are standardised on outside sizes, there we have a conflict right
away(UK cedar hives are always a bit tight inside).
Alan Riach
Edinburgh,Scotland