In the United Kingdom, singles are certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) when they pass 600,000 units as measured by the Official Charts Company. Since July 2013, this has been automatically applied by the BPI as a single reaches the threshold of any multiple of 600,000 rather than relying on the record companies to apply for the awards or limiting awards to releases after 1973 (when the awards system was first set up).^[1]

Since 1 January 1989, the number of sales required to qualify for Silver, Gold and Platinum discs has been 200,000, 400,000 and 600,000, respectively. Prior to this, the thresholds were 250,000 (Silver), 500,000 (Gold) and 1,000,000 (Platinum). For singles released before the current thresholds, only digital sales since 2005 are used to calculate the certification: so, for example, "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor was a Gold record from 1982 (500,000 copies) and passed 1 million sales before 2010, but was certified Platinum only in 2014 for 600,000 digital sales (streams and downloads), while its total sales exceeded 1.46 million.

From February 2005, downloads became eligible and for awards made in or after July 2014, audio streaming has been included at a rate of 100 streams equivalent to one unit (with any streams from the start of 2014 being counted).^[2]

In the tables below the certifications are all multiples of 600,000 units unless otherwise stated and separated according to whether streaming is included. On 22 July 2013, a large number of certifications were made for singles whose sales passed awards thresholds once digital sales since 2005 were added, and again in July 2014 once audio streams from the start of 2014 were added.^[3]

The artist with the most Multi-Platinum singles in the UK is Ed Sheeran, with 24.

The artist with the most Platinum singles in the UK is Ed Sheeran, with 49.

These lists also include any song that appears above in the lists of multi-Platinum awards. Any certifications made since July 2014 include streaming regardless of the release date and are listed separately. The last song to be certified Platinum on sales or shipments only was "Brimful of Asha" by Cornershop, which was remixed by Norman Cook and reached number one in February 1998. It was certified Platinum on 13 June 2014.