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ISO certificates don't exist!

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The standards which make up the ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 families are among the thousands of voluntary International Standards developed and published by ISO. ISO's primary role is developing International Standards. However, it also develops Guides, when appropriate, that help to ensure good practice in standards related activities, and other documents that promote the development of standardization, or facilitate the implementation of standards.

ISO itself does not carry out assessments to check that its standards are being implemented by users in conformity with the requirements of the standards. Conformity assessment - as this process is known - is a matter for suppliers and their clients in the private sector, and of regulatory bodies when ISO standards have been incorporated into public legislation.

In addition, there exist many testing laboratories and certification bodies which offer independent (also known as "third party") conformity assessment services to provide confirmation that products (including hardware, software and processed materials), services or systems measure up to ISO standards. Such organizations may perform these services under a mandate to a regulatory authority, or as a commercial activity, the aim of which is to create confidence between suppliers and their clients. In some countries, ISO members carry out conformity assessment, either on behalf of their respective governments, or as a business operation. ISO itself has no authority to control these activities.

However, in partnership with the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), ISO has developed ISO/IEC Guides covering various aspects of conformity assessment activities and the organizations that perform them. The voluntary criteria contained in these Guides represent an international consensus on what constitutes acceptable practice. Their use contributes to the consistency and coherence of conformity assessment worldwide and so facilitates trade across borders.

A point which logically follows on from the above remarks is that it is false to describe a company as "ISO-certified", "ISO-registered", or to use phrases such as "ISO certification", "ISO certificates" and "ISO registration". ISO operates no system for assessing the conformance of organizations' management systems with standards in the ISO 9000 family, or the ISO 14000 family. ISO itself carries out neither ISO 9000 nor ISO 14000 audits and awards no certificates attesting to conformity with the standards. There is no such thing as "ISO certification", or "ISO registration", whether in relation to ISO 9000, ISO 14000, or any other ISO standard.

Both ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 auditing and certification are carried out independently of ISO by certification bodies under their own responsibility.