EN adoption of ISO/IEC 17021:2011 on Conformity assessment – Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems is now available

The new ISO/IEC 17021:2011, Conformity assessment – Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems, was released in February and the EN adoption (sold as BS EN ISO/IEC 17021:2011 for the official English language edition) has now been released as well.

Adoption by the European Union means that the countries in Europe have participated in the process to accept the ISO/IEC standard as a European Standard (EN) per the Vienna and Dresden agreements.  The process includes a public enquiry, followed by an approval by weighted vote of CEN national members and final ratification. The European Standard is then announced at national level, published or endorsed as an identical national standard and every conflicting national standard is withdrawn.

This ISO/IEC 17021 revision sets new requirements for the auditing of management systems and for auditor competence in order to increase the value of management system certification to public and private sector organizations.  The changes relate to the competence of the auditors who carry out certification and to the way in which they are managed and deployed.

Certification bodies that use the new edition will be able to ensure competent audit teams, with adequate resources, following a consistent process and reporting audit results in a consistent manner.

The certification bodies that carry out management system certification are being given a two-year period to bring their operations in line with the new edition.

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