ISO/IEC Standard to Increase Confidence in Management System Certification
October 9, 2006 // Published as a news service by IHS
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The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) released ISO/IEC 17021:2006, a standard designed to increase confidence in management system certification.
ISO/IEC 17021:2006 - Conformity assessment - Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems, places rigorous requirements for competence and impartiality on the bodies that offer audit and certification to standards like ISO 9001:2000 (quality management) and ISO 14001:2004 (environmental management).
The new standard has a huge potential impact since according to the latest figures, some 888,000 organizations in 161 countries are independently certified to ISO 9001:2000 and/or ISO 14001:2004.
ISO/IEC 17021:2006 is compatible with a further expansion of management system certification. It was designed as the single source of internationally harmonized requirements for certification bodies and their activities, not only in relation to ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001:2004, but also to new management standards for food safety (ISO 22000), information security (ISO/IEC 27001:2005) and supply chain security (ISO/PAS 28000:2005), as well as to any others that may be developed.
"ISO/IEC 17021:2006 will be a common basis for any future work within ISO when a need is perceived to have the effective implementation of a management system standard verified by independent (third-party) audit and certification," said Alister Dalrymple, co-convenor of the group of experts that developed the standard.
"Because this will encourage consistent good practice, the standard provides value for the organizations that implement management systems, for the bodies that provide them with certification services and, ultimately, for customers, consumers and regulators of the products and services covered by the management systems."
Replacing and improving on two ISO/IEC Guides (ISO/IEC Guide 62 and ISO/IEC Guide 66), ISO/IEC 17021:2006 distills an international consensus on the latest in good practice. In addition, it incorporates guidance developed by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF), an international association of the accreditation bodies set up in many countries to approve or accredit certification bodies as competent.
"Because ISO/IEC 17021:2006 provides the requirements for performing certification to any management system, it becomes the unique requirements document for accrediting bodies that certify any management system," said co-convenor Randy Dougherty.
"This will help to ensure consistent good practice both by accreditation and by certification bodies, which is good for confidence in these activities and therefore good for international trade."
ISO/IEC 17021:2006 represents a new model for the standards that make up ISO's tool box for conformity assessment, which includes the evaluation of products, services, systems, processes and materials against standards, regulations or other specifications. It presents principles of certification, then the performance-based requirements that flow from them.
According to ISO, these principles cover impartiality, competence, responsibility, openness, confidentiality and responsiveness to complaints. The standard underlines the need to ensure the competence of all the personnel of the certification body - not just auditors - in the management system certification process.
Requirements for impartiality include:
- Demonstration by top management of certification bodies of the need to avoid conflicts of interest between certification and consultancy.
- Training and internal auditing services.
- Marketing of certification services.
- Subcontracting of audits.
The certification body is required to set up a committee for safeguarding impartiality. The standard envisages that such a committee could include representatives of clients of the certification body, customers of these clients, trade associations, regulatory bodies, governmental and nongovernmental organizations, and consumer associations.
Additionally, the certification body is also required to implement a management system to ensure its conformity to ISO/IEC 17021:2006.
Source: International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
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