Standard status
- Current published edition
- ISO/IEC 17065:2012 (first edition, published September 2012)
- Scheme type
- Product, process and service certification bodies
ISO/IEC 17065 is the international standard for bodies that certify products, processes and services. A body accredited against it is a product certification body, often shortened to certification body or CB. The standard sets out what such a body must do, and how it must be structured, resourced and governed, so that a decision to certify a product, process or service is competent, impartial and consistent. It replaced ISO/IEC Guide 65. ASCB offers accreditation to ISO/IEC 17065.
Does ISO/IEC 17065 certify the product or the body?
Both words are in play, and keeping them apart is the point. A certification body certifies a product, process or service, confirming it meets a specified standard or scheme. Accreditation is separate: ASCB assesses the certification body itself against ISO/IEC 17065. So a product is certified, and the certification body that certified it is accredited. A product is never "ISO/IEC 17065 accredited"; it is certified by a body that is accredited against ISO/IEC 17065. The certificate relates to the product's conformity with the scheme it was certified against, at the scope stated on it, not to general regulatory approval, which is a matter for the relevant authority.
What ISO/IEC 17065 requires
General requirements
The body must be a legal entity able to take responsibility for its certification decisions, with the financial stability and arrangements to cover its liabilities. It must identify, analyze and manage risks to its impartiality on an ongoing basis, offer certification on non-discriminatory conditions, protect confidentiality, and make defined information publicly available.
Structural requirements
The body must be organized so that certification decisions have clear ownership and are protected from commercial pressure, with a mechanism, such as a committee with balanced representation, for safeguarding impartiality.
Resources and personnel
The body must determine and manage the competence of personnel involved in certification, and have the resources for evaluation, whether testing, inspection, auditing or assessment, that the scheme requires. Outsourced evaluation is controlled, and the body remains responsible for it.
The certification process
Clause 7 sets out the process end to end: application and review, evaluation of the product, process or service, an independent review of the evaluation, the certification decision made by someone who did not carry out the evaluation, certification documentation, a public directory of certified products, surveillance, handling of changes affecting certification, the termination, reduction, suspension or withdrawal of certification, records, and complaints and appeals.
Management system
The body must operate a management system supporting consistent operation. The standard offers two routes: a set of requirements stated directly (Option A), or an ISO 9001 management system that supports the rest of the standard (Option B).
Product certification versus management system certification
ISO/IEC 17065 and ISO/IEC 17021-1 are often confused, because both describe certification bodies. The difference is what gets certified. Under ISO/IEC 17065 the certification body certifies a product, process or service against a scheme, so the certificate speaks to the thing itself. Under ISO/IEC 17021-1 the certification body certifies an organization's management system, such as ISO 9001, so the certificate speaks to how the organization manages its work, not to any individual product. A body can hold both accreditations, but they are separate accreditations against separate standards, answering different questions for the buyer.
Scheme and sector application
ISO/IEC 17065 is applied wherever a product, process or service is certified against a defined scheme. Common fields include construction products, food and agricultural products and processes, electrical and electronic goods, management of forests and supply chains, energy and environmental product schemes, and a wide range of private and sector certification schemes. The scheme sets the specific requirements a product is certified against; ISO/IEC 17065 sets the requirements for the body that operates the scheme.
Why seek ASCB accreditation against ISO/IEC 17065
ASCB assesses a product certification body against the requirements of ISO/IEC 17065 on a periodic, risk-based basis, sampling records, personnel authorizations, evaluation activity and certification decisions. For a certification body and the users of its certificates, that means independent third-party assessment against the international standard for product certification bodies, applied on its own terms; a clear signal to buyers, specifiers and regulators that the body's certification decisions rest on the same international requirements as the wider field; public verifiability, since an accredited body's status and the scope of its accreditation can be confirmed on the ASCB register; and delivery by an established international accreditation body operating to ISO/IEC 17011 for more than 30 years; organizations certified by ASCB-accredited bodies operate in 140+ countries.
Where ISO/IEC 17065 sits among the standards
ISO/IEC 17065 is one of a family of conformity assessment standards. The most closely related are:
• ISO/IEC 17000: the conformity assessment vocabulary and principles; it defines the shared terms this standard uses.
• ISO/IEC 17021-1: management system certification bodies; certifies management systems, where ISO/IEC 17065 certifies products.
• ISO/IEC 17020: inspection bodies; inspection may feed a product certification but is a distinct activity.
• ISO/IEC 17025: testing and calibration laboratories; testing may feed a product certification but is a distinct activity.
• ISO/IEC 17011: requirements for accreditation bodies; the standard ASCB works to when it accredits a product certification body.
• ISO 9001: quality management systems; available as Option B for the certification body's own management system.
How to apply
How to apply for ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation, including the process, the fees and the application documents, is set out on Become Accredited.