Certification, Accreditation and Regulatory Context
Who regulates whom
Accreditation is the third-party attestation of a certification body's competence, performed by a national accreditation body (for example UKAS, DAkkS, ANAB) against ISO/IEC 17021-1. Certification is the certification body's attestation that an organisation's EMS conforms to ISO 14001, within a defined scope. Accreditation bodies in turn operate under the IAF Multilateral Recognition Arrangement, supported by mandatory documents such as IAF MD 1 (multi-site sampling), MD 5 (determination of audit time) and MD 11 (integrated audits).
The certification cycle
Application and application review (scope, sites, shifts, exclusions, competence needed) → initial audit in two stages (stage 1 readiness, stage 2 conformity and effectiveness) → certification decision made by a person independent of the audit team → surveillance audits at least once a year, the first within 12 months of the decision → recertification before the certificate expires, on a three-year cycle. Special audits cover complaints, changes, suspension or withdrawal. The certificate states the standard, scope, sites, validity and accreditation mark.
Regulatory context
ISO 14001 certification is voluntary; compliance with environmental law and permit conditions is not. A certification body certifies conformity with ISO 14001, not with the law, although a significant unaddressed legal breach is usually evidence that the compliance obligations process (6.1.3) and evaluation of compliance (9.1.2) are failing - and most schemes require a major nonconformity to be raised where a permit condition is breached in a way that shows system failure.
Traps
Assuming the audit team can make the certification decision; assuming a certificate transfers automatically when a client changes certification body (transfer follows IAF MD 2); confusing accreditation with certification; forgetting that audit time must be justified and recorded.
Rule of thumb: the audit team recommends; an independent, competent decision-maker decides.