Within Italy there are two national standards bodies: Comitato Elettrotecnico Italiano (CEI) for electric and electrotechnical, and Ente Nazionale Italiano di Unificazione (UNI) for all other areas. UNI, founded in 1921, and CEI, founded in 1909, are both private non-profit association operating under Statute..

One of the two national accreditation bodies is also a private non-profit organisation operating under Statute. ACCREDIA was created in 2009 by the merger of SINAL (previously responsible for accreditation in certification and SINCERT (previously responsible for accreditation in testing.

The second, SIT, is responsible for accreditation in calibration, and was formed in 1979 by the then national measurement institutes (IMGC, IEN and ENEA-INMRI), which handed responsibility for accreditation to SIT in 2003.

Legal metrology is the responsibility of Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico, within the Direzione generale per l'armonizzazione del mercato e la tutela dei consumatori (DGAMTC), a department of the Ministry for Economic Development.

Metrology is primarily the responsibility of INRIM*, formed in 2006 from the merger of IMGC and IEN. INRIM is a public body.

* Except for ionising radiation metrology, which is the responsibility of ENEA-INMRI.