ISO/IEC 17065 · Bodies certifying products, processes and services
ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation consulting for certificates the market has reason to trust.
Get your certification body accredited to ISO/IEC 17065 by the accreditation body, for the schemes and products you certify, on a timeline you can plan around. Sterling's expert and experienced consultants help you document the scheme, settle impartiality, evidence competence, control the resources used for evaluation and prepare for the office assessment and the witnessed certification activities, in 60+ countries. We ensure successful accreditation for our clients.
- One all-inclusive proposal for a defined scope: consulting, Effivity software, Sterling Academy access and internal auditor training, as applicable to your standard, in one proposal
- A team of expert and experienced conformity assessment consultants, advising on management systems across sectors and countries since 2003
- The Sterling Promise: 100% on-time completion, 100% success, 8,100+ client engagements. Sterling does not accredit; the accreditation body assesses and decides
8,100+ client engagements in 60+ countries.
ISO/IEC 17065 client experience
What it is
What is ISO/IEC 17065 and what is it used for?
ISO/IEC 17065 is the international standard for bodies that certify products, processes and services. Its requirements cover the competence, consistent operation and impartiality of such bodies. Product certification is third-party work: a body independent of supplier and buyer evaluates the product, process or service against specified requirements, reviews the evidence, decides, issues the certificate or grants the right to use the mark, and keeps checking through surveillance. In the standard's own words, the overall aim is "to give confidence to all interested parties that a product, process or service fulfils specified requirements".
Every certification body works within a certification scheme, which sets the requirements the product must meet, how it is evaluated, by testing, inspection, a supplier audit or a combination, and how surveillance is done; the fundamentals of schemes are in ISO/IEC 17067. A certification body is not certified; it is accredited. An accreditation body, itself working to ISO/IEC 17011, reviews the body's documentation, assesses its offices, witnesses evaluators, auditors and decision-makers at work on real files and, if satisfied, grants accreditation for a defined scope: the products, processes or services, schemes, normative documents and locations on a public schedule that regulators, scheme owners and buyers use to decide whose certificates they accept.
Current edition. ISO/IEC 17065:2012, the first edition, was published in September 2012 and replaced ISO/IEC Guide 65:1996; ISO confirmed it in 2017 and 2024, and no amendment has been issued. A second edition is in preparation: ISO/CASCO opened the eight-week ballot on the final draft, ISO/IEC FDIS 17065, on 4 August 2026, so publication is expected after a successful vote, on a date ISO has not announced. No transition period exists yet; once the edition is published, Global ACI (Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated, which brought IAF and ILAC together on 1 January 2026 and whose MRA replaced the IAF MLA and the ILAC MRA) and your accreditation body will set one. First-time applicants build to the 2012 edition, which remains the accreditation criterion. ISO/IEC 17065 requirements explained, clause by clause
Who it is for
Who needs ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation?
The standard applies to any body that certifies products, processes or services as a third party: independent certification companies, the certification arms of testing and inspection groups, industry bodies that grant a mark, and organisations certifying under a regulator's or a scheme owner's programme. The scope you apply for should list the schemes, product categories and normative documents your clients' markets rely on. Certification bodies and scheme owners come to Sterling from four starting points:
- A regulator, a scheme owner or a market requires accredited certification. Many regulators accept product certificates only from accredited bodies, and the owners of schemes recognised under the Global ACI MRA, GLOBALG.A.P., BRCGS, IFS and PEFC chain of custody among them, typically make ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation a condition of approving a certification body.
- You are a scheme owner building a certification programme. A halal, organic, sustainability, product safety or privacy mark needs scheme rules on ISO/IEC 17067 lines and a certification body, your own or an approved one, operating them to ISO/IEC 17065.
- You test or inspect and want to certify as well. An ISO/IEC 17025 laboratory or an ISO/IEC 17020 inspection body already holds much of clause 6. Certification adds the scheme, the certification agreement, the separation of evaluation from decision, surveillance and the directory.
- You already certify and the system is not working, or the scope must grow. Decisions taken by the person who evaluated, an impartiality committee that never meets, outsourced laboratories nobody evaluated, a new scheme to add, or a second edition to prepare for.
Business benefits
How ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation supports your certification body and its clients
Accreditation should make your certificates worth more and your decisions harder to dispute. We start from the moments that cost certification bodies business, a certificate a buyer refuses, a decision a client appeals, a scheme owner withdrawing approval, and build the system around them.
- Certificates that are acceptedA scope on the accreditation body's public schedule, recognised through the Global ACI MRA, so regulators, scheme owners and buyers abroad accept your certificates and marks.
- Impartiality you can demonstrateRisks from ownership, related consultancy, outsourcing and personal relationships identified and addressed, with the safeguarding mechanism genuinely at work.
- Decisions separated from evaluationThe people who decide are not the people who evaluated, and every decision rests on a documented review, so a challenged certificate has a basis.
- Evaluation resources under controlIn-house and outsourced testing, inspection and auditing meeting the standard's conditions, with laboratories' accreditation evidenced.
- Competence that is evidencedCriteria for every function, from application review to certification decision, and records that show each person meets them.
- A scope that can growScheme files, competence records and process documents built to one pattern, so a new scheme or product category is a scope extension, not a new project.
Measure what should change: appeals upheld, certificates suspended for cause, evaluation reports returned by reviewers, surveillance overdue, complaints about certified products. A thicker manual is not a result.
Requirements
What are the main ISO/IEC 17065 requirements?
ISO/IEC 17065:2012 has five requirement clauses, 4 to 8, and two informative annexes: Annex A, the principles for product certification bodies and their certification activities, and Annex B, on applying the standard to processes and services. Clauses 4 to 7 concern the body and its certification work; clause 8 is the management system that keeps it consistent. The table is a plain-language map; the programme checks your body clause by clause and scheme by scheme.
| Clause | What it requires of you | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|---|
| 4 General requirements | Settle the legal and contractual matters, manage impartiality, provide for liability and financing, certify on non-discriminatory conditions, keep client information confidential and make the required information publicly available | A legal entity with a certification agreement signed by every client and rules for the use of certificates and marks; an impartiality analysis covering ownership, other services, outsourcing and personal relationships, with actions; insurance or reserves; published descriptions of the process, the clients' rights and duties and the complaints route |
| 5 Structural requirements | Define a structure in which top management is responsible for certification, with the authority and independence to decide, and operate a mechanism for safeguarding impartiality that involves the interested parties | An organisation chart separating evaluation from decision, and a committee or equivalent mechanism with balanced interests, terms of reference, minutes and evidence that its advice was acted on |
| 6 Resource requirements | Employ or contract enough competent personnel for every certification function, define and record their competence, and control the resources used for evaluation, in-house or outsourced | Competence criteria per function and scheme, training, monitoring and authorisation records for evaluators, reviewers and decision-makers, and agreements, evaluations and accreditation evidence for every outsourced laboratory or auditor |
| 7 Process requirements | Run the certification process in the standard's sequence: application, application review, evaluation, review, certification decision, certification documentation, directory of certified products, surveillance, changes affecting certification, termination, reduction, suspension or withdrawal, records, and complaints and appeals | Application and review records, evaluation reports from testing, inspection or audit, a review by someone other than the evaluator, decisions by authorised people with their basis recorded, certificates with the required content, a public directory, a surveillance plan, sanctions through a documented process, and a complaints and appeals register |
| 8 Management system requirements | Run a management system that supports clauses 4 to 7, either by documenting and controlling the elements the standard lists (Option A) or through a management system that meets ISO 9001 and supports the standard's requirements (Option B) | A concise management system in Effivity: policies and documentation, control of documents and records, management reviews that decide, internal audits that reach the certification files, and corrective and preventive actions closed with evidence |
What does useful ISO/IEC 17065 evidence look like?
Signed certification agreements, the impartiality analysis and the minutes of the mechanism that safeguards it, competence records for every certification function, outsourcing agreements with the laboratories' accreditation evidence, application reviews, evaluation reports, review and decision records showing who decided and on what basis, certificates and the public directory, surveillance results, complaint and appeal files, and audit and management review records. We identify the records each scheme genuinely needs and keep the management system records in Effivity from the first workshop, so the assessor sees a working body, not a binder.
ISO/IEC 17065 requirements explained, clause by clauseAccreditation process
How do you get ISO/IEC 17065 accredited?
Build a certification body that meets the standard, operate it, then apply to an accreditation body, which assesses you and decides. Sterling provides consulting and preparation; the decision belongs to the body, which is what gives the schedule its value. Every body publishes its own procedure; the sequence below is common to them.
- 01Define the scope, the schemes and the accreditation body.Agree which products, processes or services, schemes, normative documents and locations go on the application, decide who owns each scheme, and choose the body, normally the national one, checking its Global ACI MRA signatory status for product certification and, where relevant, for the scheme.
- 02Gap analysis: review the body against clauses 4 to 8, scheme by scheme.It covers legal and contractual matters, impartiality, structure, competence, evaluation resources, every step of the certification process, complaints and appeals and the management system, keeps what works and fixes actions, owners and dates.
- 03Document the scheme, build the evidence and certify.Write the scheme rules where you own them, the procedures, agreements and templates; define and record competence; contract and evaluate the laboratories and inspection bodies you rely on; then run real certifications, because accreditation bodies witness them and some require completed certifications before assessing.
- 04Audit, review and close what is found.An internal audit that follows real certification files from application to decision, then a management review; findings are raised by us first and closed with evidence before the application goes in.
- 05Complete the accreditation body's assessment.Application and document review, a pre-assessment where offered, then the assessment at your offices and the witnessing of certification activities: assessors sample files and watch evaluations, audits and decisions; nonconformities are closed by the body's deadline and its decision-makers grant the scope.
- 06Maintain the accreditation.Competence monitoring, internal audits and management reviews continue, the body returns for surveillance, normally each year with further activities witnessed, and reassesses on its cycle, with scope extensions as schemes are added.
Establish who will accredit you before you compare prices. Only accreditation bodies operating to ISO/IEC 17011 accredit certification bodies; a certificate of "ISO 17065 compliance" from another certification body or a consultancy is not accreditation and will be on no register. How to choose a credible ISO/IEC 17065 provider · The accreditation buyer's checklist
Cost
How much does ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation cost?
There is no list price for ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation: a body operating one scheme needs a different programme from a group certifying under six schemes in three countries, and the accreditation body charges by the assessor days your scope needs. What we promise is a proposal with every component visible and Sterling's fee fixed.
| Cost component | What affects it |
|---|---|
| Consulting and implementation | Current maturity, the schemes and product categories in scope, whether you own the scheme, locations, deliverables and how much of the work your team takes on (Design™ or Drive™) |
| Accreditation body fees | Application, document review, assessor days at your offices and at witnessed activities, travel, and the body's annual and surveillance charges |
| Technical investment | Accredited testing or inspection capacity, in-house or outsourced, the standards and scheme documents you certify against, and qualifications a scheme owner specifies |
| Internal resources | Management, evaluator and reviewer time for procedures, competence records and the certifications to be witnessed, the impartiality mechanism's meetings, training and change |
| Software and learning | Included in a Sterling engagement: Effivity for the management system and Sterling Academy access for your people, with users, courses and access period confirmed in the proposal |
| Continued support | Internal audits, surveillance readiness, scope extensions, refresher learning and future changes under Sustain™ |
What moves the price
- The number of schemes and product categories on the scope: each needs rules, competent people and witnessed activity
- Whether you own the scheme, and so have to write it, or operate a scheme owner's rules
- Locations and countries, and whether activities are witnessed at one office or several
- The impartiality position: a body owned by a trade association, a manufacturer or a consultancy has more to demonstrate
- Any existing ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 17025 or ISO/IEC 17020 system, and the deadline a regulator, scheme owner or client has set
What a Sterling proposal always shows
- Deliverables, responsibilities, assumptions and exclusions set out in writing
- Accreditation body fees shown separately, so you can compare the whole programme cost
- Effivity, training and Academy access itemised, at no additional cost
- Payment milestones linked to deliverables rather than dates
- One all-inclusive proposal. No surprises, ever
Timeline
How long does ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation take?
Plan on six to twelve months for a first accreditation. Three things set the pace: the body has to operate its scheme and grant certifications before there is anything to witness, and some accreditation bodies require a minimum period of operation and number of certifications first; witnessed activities have to be fitted around your clients' evaluations and audits; and the body's queue, document review, findings closure and decision take time you do not control. We plan around those dependencies and track the milestones in Effivity.
| Phase | What determines the pace |
|---|---|
| Scope and gap analysis | Access to management, evaluators, scheme documents and client files, and how quickly the scope and scheme ownership are settled |
| Build and implementation | The number of schemes to document, people to qualify and authorise, outsourced resources to contract and evaluate, and the team's workload alongside client work |
| Evidence and review | Certifications granted under the new procedures so that files and decisions accumulate, then internal audit and management review |
| Accreditation assessment | The body's queue, assessor availability, the scheduling of witnessed activities, the deadline for closing findings and the decision date |
If a regulator, a scheme owner or a client has set a date, share it at the start. We will say what is achievable and where an early scope decision saves months. A date offered before anyone has looked at your scheme is not a plan.
Challenges
Common ISO/IEC 17065 implementation challenges
Most certification body programmes stall on the same five points, impartiality first. Each has a practical answer.
Impartiality is asserted, not managed.
A body owned by the association whose members it certifies, staff who also advise the applicants, a safeguarding mechanism that exists on paper. We analyse the risks with management, restructure where a relationship must change, document the controls for the rest and set up a mechanism that meets, minutes its advice and sees what management did with it.
The scheme is not written down.
Requirements in one document, evaluation methods in the evaluator's head, surveillance rules nowhere. We document the scheme on ISO/IEC 17067 lines, or map a scheme owner's rules to your process, so every evaluator applies the same requirements.
The evaluator decides.
The person who tested or audited also signs the certificate. We separate evaluation, review and decision, define who may do each, record the basis of every decision and make the file show the sequence, the first thing an assessor traces.
Competence is assumed and outsourcing is uncontrolled.
Experienced people with no criteria and no records; laboratories used for years but never evaluated. We define competence per function and scheme, capture the qualifications that exist, authorise each person, and put agreements, evaluations and accreditation evidence in place for every outsourced resource.
Records are scattered and the directory is out of date.
Applications in e-mail, reports on laptops, certificates nobody can list. We define the record set, bring the management system records into Effivity within the agreed scope, control the directory, and set an amendment process so any certificate traces back to its evidence.
Your engagement
What your ISO/IEC 17065 engagement includes
Your agreed scope brings together everything an assessment-ready certification body needs: the impartiality case, the scheme documentation, the competence and evaluation-resource evidence, the management system and people who can explain it to an assessor, from one team, for one all-inclusive proposal.
Scope, gap analysis and implementation plan
Scheme by scheme, with the impartiality analysis, responsibilities, dates and decision owners agreed up front.
Management system and certification documentation
Procedures, scheme documents, certification agreements, application, evaluation, review and decision records, certificate templates and the directory format, on Sterling's template sets.
Effivity ISO & GRC software
Your management system runs in Effivity from day one, included with the engagement at no additional cost.
Training for everyone
Internal auditor training for your audit team, as applicable to your standard, plus preferential Sterling Academy access, including complimentary awareness training for your people as part of the engagement.
Internal audit and management review
Conducted or facilitated as agreed, reaching the certification files as well as the office system, with findings closed before the assessors arrive.
Assessment readiness and support
Preparation for the document review, the pre-assessment where offered, the office assessment and the witnessed activities, and support until the decision.
Accreditation decisions remain with the independent accreditation body.
How we deliver
How Sterling supports your ISO/IEC 17065 implementation
Every ISO/IEC 17065 engagement runs on Sterling OS™, our delivery operating system: five phases, each with named deliverables, decision owners and the evidence expected at its end. Choose the support level your team has capacity for; method, software and accountability stay the same.
- 01Design™Guided implementation: your managers, evaluators and reviewers document, decide and record with Sterling's structure, templates and coaching.
- 02Drive™Fully managed consulting: Sterling consultants take on the agreed scheme documentation, impartiality analysis and evidence build with your process owners.
- 03Sustain™Post-accreditation operation: surveillance readiness, internal audits, competence monitoring, refreshers and new-evaluator training, every year.
- 04Automate™The management system in Effivity: documents, records, competence, outsourced-resource evaluations, impartiality risks, complaints and appeals, audits, actions and management review in one workspace.
- 05Revise™Scope extensions, new schemes and locations, changes in a scheme owner's or the body's requirements, and the move to the second edition of the standard when it is published.
The engagement team, the weekly session, the deliverables and the decision owners are named before work starts, so a scheme that cannot be witnessed in time is visible in month two, not in the assessor's report.
How Sterling OS™ worksOften combined with
Standards organisations pair with ISO/IEC 17065
- CAP accreditationCAP accreditation readiness for laboratories: checklist gap analysis, method records, self-inspection and peer inspection support.
- ISO 10012ISO 10012 Measurement Management certification consulting: measurement processes and equipment controlled for valid results, ready for a certification audit.
- ISO 14065ISO 14065 accreditation and requirements for bodies verifying environmental information: GHG statements, footprints, the route, cost and timing factors.
- ISO 15189ISO 15189 accreditation consulting for medical laboratories: quality and competence for reliable, timely results, prepared for the accreditation assessment.
- ISO 15190ISO 15190 laboratory safety for medical labs: gap and risk assessment, procedures, training and internal audit alongside ISO 15189.
- ISO 17034ISO 17034 accreditation consulting for reference material producers: competence and consistent operation evidenced and prepared for accreditation assessment.
Effivity · ISO/IEC 17065 management system software, included in every engagement
How Effivity helps you fulfil, automate and simplify the requirements of ISO/IEC 17065:2012.
Every Sterling ISO/IEC 17065 engagement includes Effivity, the ISO and GRC automation platform built by the Sterling group and used in 50+ countries. Its modules cover the management system, the part that most often slips between assessments: documents, records, competence and authorisations, the evaluation of outsourced laboratories, impartiality risks, complaints and appeals, audits, corrective actions and management review. Your consultant configures the workspace within the agreed scope; certification files and the directory stay in your own systems and are linked or attached as evidence. The subscription is included with the engagement, at no additional cost.
Impartiality analysis and safeguarding mechanism records
Risks to impartiality from ownership, other services, outsourcing and personal relationships, each with its owner, controls and review date, plus the minutes and follow-up of the safeguarding mechanism, so clauses 4 and 5 are a living register, not a paragraph in the manual.
Certification agreements and rules for certificates and marks
The current agreement template, each client's signed version, the rules for using certificates and marks and the record of any misuse and what was done about it.
Competence, authorisation and monitoring records
Competence criteria per function and scheme, each person's authorisation for application review, evaluation, review or decision and the monitoring behind it, linked to Sterling Academy, so the authorisation matrix is a report, not a reconstruction.
Outsourced laboratories, inspection bodies and auditors
Requirements, agreements, evaluation, approval and re-evaluation records for every external resource used in evaluation, with its accreditation evidence attached.
Published process, scope and directory control
The descriptions of the certification process, the clients' rights and duties and the complaints route that must be public, with versions and approvals, and a controlled link to the directory.
Complaints, appeals and corrective action
Received, investigated, decided by people not involved in the certification concerned and closed with root cause and evidence, visible to management before they become a pattern.
Documents, records, corrective and preventive actions
Controlled documents and records with versions, approvals and retention, corrective actions tracked to closure and preventive actions from trends: the Option A elements in one place.
Audit programme and management review
An audit programme that follows certification files from application to decision as well as the office system, findings tracked to closure, and a management review that records its inputs, including the impartiality mechanism's advice, and its decisions.
What this means at the assessment
The assessor asks for the authorisation record of the evaluator about to be witnessed, the evaluation of the laboratory whose report is in the file and the appeals received since the last visit. In Effivity each answer is a screen, with dates, owners and attachments, not a binder compiled for the visit; after accreditation, Sustain™ runs in the same workspace.
In your engagement
- Subscription included with the engagement, at no additional cost
- Configured by your Sterling consultant within the agreed scope
- Your procedures, registers and records brought across, not retyped
- Admin and user training for your certification team
- Modules for QMS, EMS, OHSMS and ISMS when you integrate other standards
ISO/IEC 17065 client experience
Client letters on file, available on request.
Signed client letters for ISO/IEC 17065 are available on request. The client feedback wall lists every letter by standard.
Programmes with ISO/IEC 17065 in scope
How an integrated conformity assessment programme runs.
- 01Integrated accreditation programmes
Testing, inspection and certification: ISO/IEC 17065 beside ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO/IEC 17020
ISO/IEC 17065, ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO/IEC 17020. When one organisation tests, inspects and certifies, the three accreditations run on one management system: one impartiality register, one competence framework and one document and record system, with the laboratory's reports feeding the certification evaluations. The accreditation body assesses each scope separately, and the certification decision stays separate from the testing behind it.
Sterling Academy · ISO/IEC 17065 e-learning
Train everyone in the certification chain on ISO/IEC 17065, not only the quality manager.
An assessor witnesses evaluators, reviewers and decision-makers at work, not the quality manual. Sterling Academy provides e-learning for everyone in the certification chain and for those running the system: video lessons with practice checkpoints, a final exam and a numbered Certificate of Completion, verifiable online, for the competence file. Sterling consulting clients benefit from preferential course access and special pricing through their Sterling consultant, including complimentary awareness training for their people as part of the engagement.
- ISO/IEC 17065 awareness for everyone in a certification role, with the training record competence files need
- Practitioner courses for the quality manager, scheme managers and the people who review and decide
- Internal auditor training for the people who will audit the body, as applicable to your standard, as part of the engagement
- Learner progress by section and a training status report for the assessor
- New evaluators trained as they join, so records are current at each surveillance
- A Sterling consultant reachable when a learner needs one
Keep exploring
Explore more about ISO/IEC 17065
Watch a video on how to implement ISO 17065 here.
Watch a video on ISO 17065 requirements here.
Why Sterling
Want successful ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation? Come to Sterling.
Whether you are accrediting a single-scheme certification body or bringing certification, testing and inspection onto one system, Sterling helps you settle impartiality accurately, document the scheme properly and build a management system your people keep using as the scope grows.
Conformity assessment bodies supported in 60+ countries
Management system consulting across sectors and countries since 2003, with one engagement team accountable wherever you certify.
All-inclusive proposal
Consulting, Effivity, training and Academy access in one proposal, accreditation body fees shown separately. No surprises, ever.
A system your certification team will use
Less documentation and maximum effectiveness: scheme rules, records, training and software connected to the certification file itself, so your people adopt the system instead of working around it.
Expert and experienced consultants
Consultants who have prepared conformity assessment bodies for accreditation, building the impartiality case and the competence evidence properly the first time, so the assessment confirms what works.
The Sterling Promise
What our ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation success guarantee means
We stay with you until the ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation outcome agreed in your engagement is achieved, through consulting, assessment preparation and the resolution of the assessors' findings. Plain explanations, practical delivery, included software and staff learning turn the investment into lasting capability.
The engagement identifies the standard, the scope applied for, the schemes, the outcome and the responsibilities. Your body supplies accurate information, performs the certifications to be witnessed and puts the controls into use. The independent accreditation body assesses competence and keeps the decision. Our commitment is the agreed accreditation support, not a promise that every regulator or buyer will accept every certificate.
After accreditation
What happens after ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation?
Accreditation is a cycle, not a certificate. The body returns for surveillance, normally each year, with further activities witnessed, and for a full reassessment on the cycle it sets: UKAS confirms accreditation annually and reassesses every fourth year, EIAC runs a three-year cycle, and NABCB grants three years initially and four after reaccreditation. Between visits the body keeps monitoring competence, evaluating outsourced resources, surveilling its certified clients, and auditing and reviewing the system.
Under Sterling OS™ Sustain™ we review appeals, complaints, impartiality risks and outsourced-resource evaluations with you alongside internal audits, management reviews and surveillance preparation, and prepare the next scope extension.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions about ISO/IEC 17065
Is ISO/IEC 17065 a certification or an accreditation?
An accreditation. An accreditation body assesses the certification body's competence, consistent operation and impartiality for a defined scope, witnesses its certification activities and, if satisfied, grants and publishes the scope. A certificate of "ISO 17065 compliance" from another certification body or a consultancy is not accreditation and appears on no register.
What is the difference between ISO/IEC 17065, ISO/IEC 17021-1 and ISO/IEC 17024?
Three kinds of certification body. ISO/IEC 17065 is for bodies certifying products, processes and services against a scheme; ISO/IEC 17021-1 for bodies auditing and certifying management systems such as ISO 9001 or ISO/IEC 27001; ISO/IEC 17024 for bodies certifying persons. A body may be accredited under more than one, each with its own scope.
What is a certification scheme, and do we need ISO/IEC 17067?
The scheme is the set of rules a certification body applies: the requirements the product, process or service must meet, how conformity is evaluated and decided, and how surveillance is done. ISO/IEC 17067:2013 describes the fundamentals of product certification and gives guidelines for developing and operating schemes; its second edition, retitled for conformity assessment schemes generally, is under publication at ISO and expected in October 2026. Scheme owners write the scheme on those lines; bodies operating another owner's scheme apply its rules.
Which accreditation body should we apply to, and will our certificates be accepted abroad?
Normally the national body, for example NABCB (India), UKAS (United Kingdom), EIAC (Dubai), GAC (Gulf states), ANAB or IAS (United States) or PAB (Philippines), provided it is a Global ACI MRA signatory for product certification and, where relevant, for the scheme. Signatories recognise one another's accreditations as equivalent, except where regulation or law provides otherwise, so check the Global ACI directory and ask whoever will rely on the certificate.
We are a scheme owner. Do we have to become a certification body?
Not necessarily. A scheme owner can write and maintain the scheme and have approved certification bodies operate it under accreditation, or set up its own certification body and have it accredited. What matters is that the scheme is documented, the rules for evaluation, decision and surveillance are clear, and the scheme owner's involvement does not compromise the certification body's impartiality.
Does ISO 9001 certification satisfy clause 8?
Clause 8 offers two options: Option A, where the body documents and controls the management system elements the standard lists, or Option B, for a body whose management system meets ISO 9001 and supports the standard's requirements. Either way clauses 4 to 7 still have to be implemented and demonstrated; an ISO 9001 certificate alone says nothing about impartiality, competence or the certification process.
Is a new edition of ISO/IEC 17065 on the way?
Yes. ISO/IEC 17065:2012 remains the current edition, confirmed by ISO in 2024, but a second edition is at final draft stage: ISO/CASCO opened the FDIS ballot on 4 August 2026. Publication follows a successful vote, and Global ACI and the accreditation bodies will set a transition period afterwards. We track the text and prepare the Revise™ plan.
Does Sterling accredit certification bodies, or certify products?
Neither. Sterling's work is consulting and assessment readiness. An independent accreditation body assesses the certification body, witnesses its work and decides; the certification body itself certifies products. Anyone offering both is selling paper.
What do you need to prepare an ISO/IEC 17065 proposal?
The schemes and product categories for the scope, whether you own each scheme, the locations, the number of people in certification roles, how evaluation is done today, any existing system, the intended accreditation body and the deadline. That is enough for a scoped, all-inclusive proposal; no manual or procedures are needed first.
Before the first call
Prepare a useful ISO/IEC 17065 readiness brief
Bring a short account of what the body certifies, under whose scheme, for whom, and where accreditation should help; no manual is needed yet. Seven questions suffice:
- Which products, processes or services do you want on the scope, under which schemes and at which locations, and who has asked for accredited certification: a regulator, a scheme owner, a market or your own management?
- Do you own the scheme, or operate one owned by a regulator, an association or a scheme owner, and is it written down?
- Who owns the certification body, what else does the organisation do, and could any of it be seen to influence a decision?
- How is evaluation done today: your own laboratory or inspectors, outsourced bodies, supplier audits, or a combination, and under what agreements?
- Who evaluates, who reviews and who decides, and what competence records exist for each?
- Does an ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 17025 or ISO/IEC 17020 system exist, and who can decide and give time to implementation and internal audit?
- Which accreditation body do you intend to apply to, how many certifications have you granted, and is there a deadline?
These answers let us scope the work and price it realistically; they open a discussion, not a scored assessment or an accreditation decision.
Don’t be fooled by certification scams
If it takes ten days, it is not ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation.
Accreditation means something because an assessor watched your evaluators and decision-makers work and traced real certificates back to their evidence. The market sells ways around that: "ISO 17065 certificates" from other certification bodies, document sets sold as accreditation, and "assessments" with nothing witnessed. They cost less, until someone looks for your scope on a register and finds nothing.
How to choose a credible ISO/IEC 17065 provider
- Ask which accreditation body will assess you, then find it in the Global ACI directory and read one of its published schedules.
- Refuse any "ISO 17065 certificate" from a certification body. Certification bodies certify products or management systems; only an accreditation body working to ISO/IEC 17011 accredits certification bodies.
- Ask how impartiality will be analysed and the scheme documented. A provider who cannot explain the separation of evaluation, review and decision has not read the standard.
- Identify who carries each task, which body, laboratory and scheme owner fees are separate, and what support exists when findings need closing.
- Ask what your evaluators will learn and where the records will live. Without training and a system, the competence evidence stops when the consultant leaves.
- Walk away from "accredited in 7 to 10 days", "no witnessed assessment" and one invoice for consulting and accreditation. A body has to operate, certify, be audited and be witnessed first.
Keep exploring
More on ISO/IEC 17065 and related standards
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