Certification Business Policy

The aim of management system certification is to inspire confidence from the public and interested parties that an organization certified or verified by BSI fulfills specified requirements. This confidence depends upon many factors including the competence of management and staff, impartiality and the perception of impartiality, and the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To that end, BSI follows the principles set out in ISO/IEC 17021: 2015 and ISO 14065:2007 and has appointed independent impartiality committees around the world whose primary role is to safeguard BSI impartiality.

BSI makes publicly accessible information about the certification status of each of its clients through the Certificate and Client Directory.  This shows whether a certificate is current, suspended or has been withdrawn in the last month. 

BSI does not, in the normal course of events, suspend certified clients and will only do so under exceptional circumstances and on a case by case basis. Under suspension, the certification of a client's management system is invalid until the suspension is lifted. Such suspension will be made clear on the BSI client directory.

If you are a certified or verified assertion client of BSI and have a disagreement concerning the decision of your certification or verification that you have been unable to resolve either through your Client Manager/Auditor/Verifier, or with the local management of your BSI office, you may appeal in writing within 21 calendar days from receipt of the decision to the Head of Compliance & Risk of the BSI office in your country.

Regardless of country location, following the receipt of an appeal, selected BSI personnel will be appointed who are independent of the appealed issue.  Contact will be made to acknowledge receipt of the appeal, outline the appeals process, gather and verify additional data and information required.  The results of the appeal decision will be communicated formally.

BSI Assurance Ltd takes complaints against itself and its clients seriously.

Complaints about BSI should be submitted in writing, to the Regional Managing Director of the BSI office in your country. We will ensure we understand your concerns fully and deal with the complaint fairly and promptly. You will be kept informed of progress and we will reply as soon as the complaint has been fully investigated.

Complaints about a registered or verified assertion client should also be submitted in writing. After confirming that the subject client is registered or verified by BSI, we will ensure that they are taking appropriate action and confirm how the issue has been dealt with during a subsequent audit or verification of the client. For this reason, these complaints may take longer to be fully resolved.

BSI will not make complaints against itself or any of its client’s public unless required to do so by a court of law.