Accreditation has a precise vocabulary, and the same few terms appear everywhere: accreditation, certification, conformity assessment, scope. The definitions below are the sense in which ASCB uses these terms across its pages, written in plain English and consistent with ISO/IEC 17000, the international vocabulary standard for conformity assessment, and ISO/IEC 17011, the international standard for accreditation bodies. Acronyms are shown with each term.
The core distinctions
Conformity assessment (CA)
The checking of whether a product, process, system, person or organization meets specified requirements. Certification, inspection, testing, calibration, and validation and verification are all conformity assessment activities.
Conformity assessment body (CAB)
Any organization that performs conformity assessment. Certification bodies, inspection bodies, testing and calibration laboratories, and validation and verification bodies are all conformity assessment bodies. ASCB's pages use CAB where a statement applies to all of them.
Accreditation
The independent assessment of a conformity assessment body by an accreditation body, against the requirements of the international standard that governs the body's activity. It is carried out periodically, on a risk basis and by sampling, and it can be suspended or withdrawn. Accreditation is the independent check on the body that issues certificates, reports or other conformity assessment results.
Accreditation body (AB)
A body that assesses and accredits conformity assessment bodies. Accreditation bodies work to ISO/IEC 17011 and are not themselves accredited by a higher body. ASCB is an independent accreditation body operating to ISO/IEC 17011.
Certification
A certification body's formal statement, issued after assessment, that an organization's management system, a product, a process or a person meets the requirements of a standard. The statement takes the form of a certificate, at a stated scope.
Certification body (CB)
A conformity assessment body that performs certification. In conformity assessment, CB means certification body; the same letters are used for calibration in laboratory contexts.
Accredited certification
Certification issued by a certification body that holds accreditation for that activity. An accredited certificate has been checked at two levels: the certified organization by the certification body, and the certification body by an accreditation body. Why that distinction matters is covered in
The value of ASCB accreditation.
Scope
The defined activities, standards and areas an accreditation or a certificate applies to. Every accreditation and every certificate applies at its stated scope, not generally. The full scope of an ASCB-accredited body is shown on the
accredited-body search on ascb.com.
Conformity assessment activities
Management system (MS)
The set of policies, processes and responsibilities through which an organization directs and controls itself with respect to a given subject, such as quality, environment or information security. Management system standards set the requirements such a system is certified against.
Product certification
Certification that a product, process or service meets specified requirements.
Personnel certification
Certification of individual persons against defined competence requirements, distinct from certification of the organization they work for.
Inspection
Examination of a product, installation, process or design, and determination of whether it meets specified or general requirements. Inspection results are reported rather than certified.
Testing and calibration
Laboratory activities. Testing determines the characteristics of an item against a method; calibration establishes the accuracy of measuring equipment.
Validation and verification (V&V)
Confirmation of claims. Verification confirms a claim about something that has already happened; validation confirms a claim about an intended future use or outcome. Greenhouse gas statements are a common subject. A body performing these activities is a validation and verification body (VVB).
Training accreditation
Accreditation of training providers and training courses, which ASCB assesses against its own published standards,
ASCB TP:2025 and
ASCB TC:2025.
The accreditation cycle
Assessment
The activity an accreditation body carries out on a conformity assessment body: reviewing its documents, observing its work and examining its records to determine whether it meets the requirements of the relevant standard.
Initial assessment, surveillance and reassessment
The stages of the accreditation cycle. An initial assessment precedes the decision to grant accreditation; surveillance follows at planned intervals while the accreditation is held; reassessment repeats the full examination before the accreditation is renewed.
Scope extension
The addition of activities or standards to an existing accreditation or certification, assessed against the same requirements as the original scope.
Nonconformity
A failure to meet a requirement of the standard, identified during assessment and graded by its seriousness. A nonconformity is met with correction and with corrective action directed at its cause.
Suspension and withdrawal
Actions an accreditation body can take on an accreditation it has granted. Suspension makes the accreditation temporarily inactive; withdrawal ends it. Certification bodies hold the equivalent powers over the certificates they issue.
Transition
The period that follows publication of a revised standard, during which assessment against the previous edition may continue while bodies and certified organizations move to the new one. Each transition has a deadline, shown in the status panel of the standard's page in the
Standards Library.
The standards
The standards referred to across ASCB's pages, and what each one covers:
• ISO/IEC 17000: the vocabulary and general principles of conformity assessment. The definitions on this page are consistent with it.
• ISO/IEC 17011: requirements for accreditation bodies. The standard ASCB works to.
•
ISO/IEC 17021-1: requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems.
•
ISO/IEC 17024: requirements for bodies operating certification of persons.
•
ISO/IEC 17065: requirements for bodies certifying products, processes and services.
•
ISO/IEC 17025: requirements for testing and calibration laboratories.
•
ISO/IEC 17029: requirements for validation and verification bodies.
•
ISO 19011: guidance for auditing management systems. Guidance, not a standard bodies are accredited against.
Certification standards
The standards organizations are certified against are certification criteria rather than accreditation standards. No body is accredited against ISO 9001; an organization is certified to it by a body accredited against ISO/IEC 17021-1. The common management system standards and their acronyms:
• EMS, environmental management system:
ISO 14001.
• OHSMS, occupational health and safety management system:
ISO 45001.
• FSMS, food safety management system:
ISO 22000.
• BCMS, business continuity management system: ISO 22301.
• AIMS, artificial intelligence management system:
ISO/IEC 42001.
International cooperation vocabulary
Global ACI
Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated, formed on January 1, 2026 from the merger of the IAF and ILAC. It operates the multilateral recognition arrangement among its member accreditation bodies.
IAF
The International Accreditation Forum, which managed the multilateral recognition arrangement for the accreditation of certification bodies until it merged into Global ACI on January 1, 2026.
ILAC
International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation, which managed the mutual recognition arrangement for laboratory and inspection accreditation until the same merger.
MLA and MRA
Arrangements through which the member accreditation bodies of a cooperation recognize one another's accreditations. The IAF MLA and the ILAC MRA are now subsumed in the single Global ACI arrangement.
Registers and verification
Register
A published record on which certificates or accreditations are listed, so that anyone can confirm their current status rather than rely on a document alone.
IRQAO
The International Register of Quality Assessed Organisations, an independent register and validation service established in 1997. It records certificates issued by certification bodies and training institutes, including those accredited by ASCB, and records for individuals who have completed courses with accredited training providers. How it fits into checking a certificate is covered in
Verify an ASCB-accredited certificate.
Accredited-body search
ASCB's
search at ascb.com, showing each ASCB-accredited body and the full scope of its accreditation.
Common questions
Is certification the same as accreditation?
No. Certification applies to an organization, product, process or person, and is issued by a certification body. Accreditation applies to the conformity assessment body itself, and is granted by an accreditation body after independent assessment against the relevant standard.
What is a conformity assessment body?
Any organization that performs conformity assessment: a certification body, an inspection body, a testing or calibration laboratory, or a validation and verification body. CAB covers all of them.
What does accredited certification mean?
Certification issued by a certification body that holds accreditation for that activity, so the certificate has been checked at two levels: the organization by the certification body, and the certification body by an accreditation body.
Who accredits an accreditation body?
No one; accreditation bodies are not accredited by a higher body. They work to ISO/IEC 17011, the international standard setting the requirements for accreditation bodies. ASCB's position on membership of the international cooperations is set out in
International affiliations.