“What’s the difference between Certification and Accredited Certification?”

Our response: in principle, they are the same, it’s who certificates you and how they do it that’s different.

Certification

Certification is the procedure by which a third party gives written assurance that a product, process, system or person has met specified requirements.

Accredited certification

Accredited certification is a written assurance provided by a third party that has been formally recognised by an accreditation body.

All accreditation standards include the principles of quality management systems, such as those found in the well-recognised standards.

Organisations receive accreditation for specific activities whereas certification relates to the company as a whole.

Accredited Certification Bodies

However, to gain accredited certification, organisations must make sure the certification body they are using has been accredited. This must be by the UK’s designated accreditation body, UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service).

Most importantly, its role is to assess organisations that are providing testing, inspection, calibration and certification services against internationally recognised standardsnised ISO 9001 QMS standard.

UKAS’s website provides a list of accredited certification bodies.

What can be accredited?

Accreditations deliver confidence in construction and the built environment.

Despite the complexity and intricacy of the construction sector, nearly every aspect of infrastructure, construction projects and building management benefits in some way from accredited conformity assessment services.

Our Certification Consulting

Our IRCA qualified consultants cover a wide variety of industry sectors. This includes micro businesses through to multi nationals to provide the following services:

• New ISO Implementation and Certification Projects
• Outsources ISO System Maintenance
• Internal Auditing and Management Reviews
• ISO Legal Compliant and ISO Training

Next steps

So, if you’re interested in certification: we offer a range of management systems. Including the popular ISO 9001 Quality, ISO 27001 Information Security, ISO 14001 Environmental and ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety. A full list of the Certifications we offer are available here on our website.

We can help you transition from non-accredited to Accredited Certification. Simply call us on 0333 456 5000 to find out more about our ISO Consultancy services.