International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
Status
Latest
ISO/IEC 17021:2011
Scope
This International Standard contains principles and requirements for the competence, consistency and
impartiality of the audit and certification of management systems of all types (e.g. quality management
systems or environmental management systems) and for bodies providing these activities. Certification bodies
operating to this International Standard need not offer all types of management system certification.
Certification of management systems (named in this International Standard “certification”) is a third-party
conformity assessment activity (see ISO/IEC 17000:2004, 5.5). Bodies performing this activity are therefore
third-party conformity assessment bodies (named in this International Standard “certification body/bodies”).
NOTE 1 Certification of a management system is sometimes also called “registration”, and certification bodies are
sometimes called “registrars”.
NOTE 2 A certification body can be non-governmental or governmental (with or without regulatory authority).
NOTE 3 This International Standard can be used as a criteria document for accreditation or peer assessment or other
audit processes.
ISO/IEC 17021:2011 history
2011ISO/IEC 17021:2011 Conformity assessment - Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems
2006ISO/IEC 17021:2006 Conformity assessment - Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems