Impartiality Policy: How We Keep Every Certification Decision Independent
Our impartiality policy explains how Accredify Global identifies, analyzes, and controls conflicts of interest. It is why buyers, regulators, and accreditation bodies can trust the certificates we issue. It applies to every audit, every auditor, and every certification decision we make.
What Impartiality Means for a Certification Body
Impartiality means a certification decision is based only on objective evidence, never on fees, relationships, or pressure. ISO/IEC 17021-1, the standard every accredited management system certification body works to, makes it the first principle. An impartiality policy is the public commitment that shows how a certification body protects it.
A certificate is only worth something if the people who rely on it can trust how it was decided. Imagine a certification body that wrote the client's procedures, depended on one client for its income, or let sales targets shape audit outcomes. That trust would be gone.
Our impartiality policy, below, is approved by top management and applies to every certification scheme we operate. The safeguards that follow show how it works in practice.
Accredify Global Impartiality Policy
Impartiality Policy
The Top Management of Accredify Global is fully committed to ensuring impartiality in all management system certification activities. We recognize the critical importance of impartiality in delivering credible, reliable, and trusted certification services.
Accredify Global actively identifies, analyzes, and manages potential conflicts of interest to guarantee the objectivity, independence, and fairness of our certification decisions. Our impartiality commitment extends across all certification processes, personnel, and related activities.
Accredify Global complies with the requirements of ISO/IEC 17021-1 and relevant Accreditation Body (AB) guidelines, ensuring that all certification activities are performed with integrity, transparency, and confidentiality.
We maintain impartiality across all certification schemes, including:
- ISO 9001 (Quality Management System)
- ISO 14001 (Environmental Management System)
- ISO 45001 (Occupational Health & Safety)
- ISO 50001 (Energy Management System)
- ISO 13485 (Medical Devices QMS)
- ISO 22000 (Food Safety Management System)
- ISO/IEC 27001 (Information Security)
- ISO/IEC 27701 (Privacy Information Management System)
- ISO/IEC 20000-1 (IT Service Management)
- ISO/IEC 42001 (AI Management System)
- ISO 22301 (Business Continuity Management System)
- ISO 37001 (Anti-Bribery Management System)
The same impartiality requirements apply to every other certification, assessment, and training activity that Accredify Global delivers.
Our certification activities remain independent of the operations of our certified clients, their consultants, or any related personnel. This ensures that our decisions are always impartial, transparent, and free from external influence.
At Accredify Global, impartiality is at the core of our certification services, enabling businesses to achieve internationally recognized certifications with credibility and trust.
How We Control Threats to Impartiality
ISO/IEC 17021-1 names the threats a certification body must manage. These are the safeguards in our rules for each one.
| Threat | What it could look like | Our safeguard |
|---|---|---|
| Self-review | Auditing a system we helped design | We do not provide management system consultancy or internal audits |
| Familiarity | An auditor too close to the client | No auditor who consulted for, or internally audited, a client in the last two years is assigned to it |
| Self-interest | Fees influencing the outcome | The certification decision is made by the Certification Committee, not the audit team |
| Intimidation and pressure | Commercial or financial pressure on auditors | We do not accept income or assign personnel where pressure could compromise impartiality |
| Links to consultants | Referral deals with consultancies | No linked activities with management system consultancies, and no outsourcing of audits to them |
| Unknown conflicts | A relationship the client knows about but we do not | Clients receive the audit team names in advance and may object in writing |
These safeguards are set out in full in our Accredited Management System Process and our confidentiality and conflicts of interest policy. Our impartiality committee provides independent oversight of how impartiality risks are identified and controlled. Training we run for the public, and partner referrals, never influence an audit finding or a certification decision.
Impartiality Policy: Common Questions
What is an impartiality policy?
It is a certification body’s public commitment to make decisions based only on objective evidence. It explains how conflicts of interest are identified and controlled, as ISO/IEC 17021-1 requires.
Which standards does this policy cover?
All of them. That includes the twelve standards in our UAF accreditation scope: ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 50001, ISO 13485, ISO 22000, ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 27701, ISO/IEC 20000-1, ISO/IEC 42001, ISO 22301 and ISO 37001. It also covers every other certification, assessment and training activity we deliver.
Can Accredify Global help us write our management system and then certify it?
No. That would be a self-review threat. We do not provide management system consultancy or internal audits to organizations we certify.
Who makes the certification decision?
The Certification Committee reviews the audit file and decides. The auditors who carried out the audit do not make the final decision.
Can we object to an auditor?
Yes. We share the names of the proposed audit team before the audit. You can object in writing if you see a potential conflict of interest, and we assign a replacement.
How do I report a concern about impartiality?
Use our complaints and appeals process or email info@accredifyglobal.com. Concerns about impartiality are investigated by people who were not involved in the activity concerned.
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