The British Council for Offices is an organisation for all those involved in creating, acquiring or occupying office space.  It has published a number of design guides in relation to office space, and the 2009 version of the BCO Guide to Specification includes noise criteria for office spaces.

The criteria deal with both external noise break in and internally generated noise from building services equipment.  The noise criteria are specified as noise rating (NR) curves.  These curves specify different noise levels at different frequencies.  NR criteria are provided for open plan and cellular offices as well as ancillary spaces such as toilets and lobbies.