Certification

There is confusion in this area as many companies are unsure of whether they need Certification and misunderstand the purpose of Certification or meeting standards. Certification has been available to organisations since 1983. However some sectors believe Certification is new and fall into the trap of believing that Self-Certification or Certification via a non-accredited Body is acceptable in the marketplace. It is not permitted by International Standards for any organisation to offer both consultancy and certification due to the inevitable conflict of interest.

Accredited Certification Bodies are those organisations that comply with, and have been assessed against, the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) requirements for carrying out assessment and certification of organisations. Accreditation is only available to Certification Bodies, not individual organisations, as often thought, and Certification is what an organisation achieves following the assessment of its activities against ISO 14001 or BS8901 by an accredited Certification Body.

UKAS is the only accreditation body in the UK recognised by government to assess, against internationally agreed standards, organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services and issue certificates for British and International standards.

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