ISO/ IEC 17021:2011, Conformity assessment - necessities for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems - could be a requirement for all certification bodies so as to prove that they're competent to hold out third-party certification and auditing of management systems.
Scope of ISO 17021:2011
ISO 17021:2011 standard contains principles and necessities for the ability, consistency and inclination of the audit and certification of management systems of all kinds (e.g. quality management systems or environmental management systems) and for bodies providing these activities. Certification bodies in operation to the present International standard needn't supply all kinds of management system certification.
Certification of management systems (named during this International standard “certification”) could be a third-party conformity assessment activity. Bodies playing this activity square measure so third-party conformity assessment bodies (named during this International standard “certification body/bodies”).
Requirements of ISO 17021:2011 Standards
1. Legal and written agreement matters
Legal responsibility
The certification body shall be a legal entity, or an outlined a part of a legal entity, specified it are often command lawfully chargeable for all its certification activities. A governmental certification body is deemed to be a legal entity on the premise of its governmental standing.
Certification agreement
The certification body shall have a lawfully enforceable agreement for the supply of certification activities to its consumer. Additionally, where there are multiple offices of a certification body or multiple sites of a client, the certification body shall guarantee there's a lawfully enforceable agreement between the certification body granting certification and supply a certificate, and every one the sites covered by the scope of the certification.
Responsibility for certification selections
The certification body shall be chargeable for, and shall retain authority for, its selections concerning certification, as well as the granting, maintaining, renewing, extending, reducing, suspending and retreating of certification.
2. Management of inclination
Scope of ISO 17021:2011
ISO 17021:2011 standard contains principles and necessities for the ability, consistency and inclination of the audit and certification of management systems of all kinds (e.g. quality management systems or environmental management systems) and for bodies providing these activities. Certification bodies in operation to the present International standard needn't supply all kinds of management system certification.
Certification of management systems (named during this International standard “certification”) could be a third-party conformity assessment activity. Bodies playing this activity square measure so third-party conformity assessment bodies (named during this International standard “certification body/bodies”).
- Certification of a management system is typically conjointly referred to as “registration”, and certification bodies square measure typically referred to as “registrars”.
- A certification body are often non-governmental or governmental (with or while not regulative authority).
- This International standard are often used as a criteria document for enfranchisement or peer assessment or different audit processes
Requirements of ISO 17021:2011 Standards
1. Legal and written agreement matters
Legal responsibility
The certification body shall be a legal entity, or an outlined a part of a legal entity, specified it are often command lawfully chargeable for all its certification activities. A governmental certification body is deemed to be a legal entity on the premise of its governmental standing.
Certification agreement
The certification body shall have a lawfully enforceable agreement for the supply of certification activities to its consumer. Additionally, where there are multiple offices of a certification body or multiple sites of a client, the certification body shall guarantee there's a lawfully enforceable agreement between the certification body granting certification and supply a certificate, and every one the sites covered by the scope of the certification.
Responsibility for certification selections
The certification body shall be chargeable for, and shall retain authority for, its selections concerning certification, as well as the granting, maintaining, renewing, extending, reducing, suspending and retreating of certification.
2. Management of inclination
- The certification body shall have high management commitment to inclination in management system certification activities. The certification body shall have a publicly accessible statement that it understands the importance of inclination in closing its management system certification activities manages conflict of interest and ensures the judgment of its management system certification activities.
- The certification body shall determine, analyze and document the probabilities for conflict of interests arising from provision of certification as well as any conflicts arising from its relationships. Having relationships doesn't essentially gift a certification body with a conflict of interest. However, if any relationship creates a threat to inclination, the certification body shall document and be able to demonstrate however it eliminates or minimizes such threats. This info shall be created obtainable to the committee laid out in vi.2. The demonstration shall cowl all potential sources of conflict of interests that square measure known, whether or not they arise from inside the certification body or from the activities of different persons, bodies or organizations.