ISO/IEC 17065 stipulates:
4.1.1 Legal responsibility
The certification body shall be a legal entity, or a defined part of a legal entity, such that the legal entity can be held legally responsible for all its certification activities.
As part of a new application for accreditation of a CB for product certification we are facing a particular situation :
The applicant CB (delivering the certification decision) does not have an agreement with the client.
The client has an agreement with another entity, which is performing all the other certification activities (the CB will only make the decision). This other entity will not be accredited.
It is possible for a CB (the entity who is delivering the certification decision) to not have an agreement with the client?
March 2019
No, it is not possible.
According to 7.6.1 of ISO/IEC 17065, the CB shall be responsible for, and shall retain authority for its decisions. And, according to 6.2.2.1, the CB can outsource only its evaluation activities. One of the core activities of the product certification body is decision making. In both cases, the CB shall have its own certification agreement with its client instead of another entity, which is performing all other certification activities (evaluation activities?) excluding decision making.
“7.6.1 The certification body shall be responsible for, and shall retain authority for, its decisions relating to certification.”
Also according to 7.7.3 of ISO/IEC 17065, if there is not any completed/signed certification agreement in between the CB and its client, formal certification documentation (certificate) cannot be issued.
“7.7.3 Formal certification documentation (see 7.7) shall only be issued after, or concurrent with, the following:
- c) the certification agreement (see 4.1.2) has been completed/signed.”
Also, this question reminds us below IAF TC Decision;
14/04/07 Evaluation Activities ISO/IEC 17065 Concerning the question if a certification body can be accredited to ISO/IEC 17065 where the CB does not undertake any evaluation activity and just undertakes review and decision the answer is yes as ISO/IEC 17065 Clause 7.4.5 and 6.2.2.4 permits the acceptance of the evaluation. Nevertheless, all other clauses of ISO/IEC17065 need to be met. and decision the answer is yes as ISO/IEC 17065 Clause 7.4.5 and 6.2.2.4 permits the acceptance of the evaluation. Nevertheless, all other clauses of ISO/IEC17065 need to be met.Addition:CB verifies incoming test report against the certification scheme requirements is considered an evaluation activity.Note: The discussion does not accurately reflect the two schemes operated in the USA, because such schemes are not type testing.