International validity of certificates

What is needed for the recognition of certificates at international level?
Essentially, this requires three basic prerequisites, namely: the certification body's good reputation, its business model with suitable international networking and the reliable establishment and maintenance of internationally recognised accreditation. It is therefore a combination of capabilities from the business model, audit competencies and the implementation of regulatory and normative criteria. The capabilities are based on defined and lived corporate values, so that the services of the certification body optimally meet customer needs and make them tangible for customers time and again.

Which bodies - authorities, organisations, associations - are actually involved in the decision on validity?
The validity of a certificate is the responsibility of the certification body. However, in order for valid certificates to be issued with broad recognition, a whole series of technical requirements are needed, which we will briefly discuss: Certification activities are highly regulated by standards and additional requirements of accreditation institutions. This is the case regardless of whether the certification is voluntary or required by law (for example, market approval of products based on EU directives and regulations in the European single market).

The decision-making chain on the validity of certificates corresponds to a cascade, based on ISO standards, international accreditation specifications, national accreditation implementation regulations and, if necessary, additional market-specific regulations. However, the final decision on the perceived validity or recognition of a certificate is ultimately made by the market participants, according to their own convictions and preferences.

What are the main mechanisms involved in this decision-making process?

- – ISO standards from the ISO 17000 series contain the basic requirements for the organization and processes of a certification body. These standards are also referred to as competence-based standards. They are used by accreditation bodies worldwide to confirm the "required competence" of successfully assessed certification bodies by means of accreditation. SQS has always been actively involved in the creation of these standards.

- – Accreditation bodies are internationally and partly also regionally united. Based on the ISO 17000 standards, they issue their own detailed implementation regulations and guidelines for the harmonised performance of accreditations. These specifications are known, for example, at the International Accreditation Forum as IAF Mandatory Documents or at the European Accreditation as obligatory EA Documents. These specifications therefore serve as an additional basis for assessment in accreditations.

- – The recognised accreditation bodies or the accreditation bodies seeking recognition are usually members of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and/or a regional accreditation association such as European Accreditation (EA). Or they have a contractual cooperation with one of these IAF / EA involved accreditation bodies with the aim to enable the recognition level in the market by equivalent accreditation practice. Most comprehensive worldwide recognition has been established by an accreditation body especially if it is not only a member within the IAF, but has successfully passed an IAF peer evaluation procedure for the existing certification schemes and holds the corresponding multilateral agreements. Alternatively, the accreditation body may cooperate with an IAF / EAA accreditation body accordingly. These agreements make the recognition visible and, according to IAF rules, include the mutual recognition of accreditations by IAF member organisations. It can be deduced from this that the market gives lower weighting to or can even negate the recognition of certificates which are not subject to these rules. European Accreditation has established an equivalent procedure.

- – At the last level - the regulatory level - is the national accreditation body (in Switzerland the SAS, in Liechtenstein the LAS). It carries out assessments according to the above rules at its certification bodies, often based on a number of additional national implementing regulations and detailed specifications. In Switzerland, this activity is based on the Accreditation and Designation Ordinance, AkkBV of 17 June 1996 (as of 20 April 2016).

In the national implementation of international accreditation rules, associations or interested parties have the possibility to be consulted. However, this mechanism is still weak in Switzerland despite the existence of an SAS Certification Committee. It is currently not promoted enough by the accreditation body. In addition, the subject of accreditation is abstract and not very familiar to many actors and therefore does not always meet with great interest. This would be desirable, however, because there is a latent risk in the entire regulatory cascade that requirements from foreign interpretations are simply adopted without sufficiently excluding or preventing the negative consequences for one's own economic actors (for example, formalism, excessive controls, regulations from inadequate consensus mechanisms). This increases the danger of artificially inflated accreditation structures and expensive procedures under the pretext of international obligations.

Which SQS certificates have not only national but also international orientation and validity?
In principle, the orientation is based on the origin and scope of the underlying standard or the certification scheme used in each case. In addition, there are the certification body's own market preferences based on the expected market demand.

There are national certification schemes and corresponding specifications that are clearly limited to a specific country. In Switzerland, for example, these include VDSZ data protection certifications (VDSZ) in accordance with the updated ordinance of 1 November 2016. An overview of more nationally oriented schemes can be found at www.sqs.ch (under Range of services and National schemes or labels). The certified management systems according to international ISO standards generally have a wider international or global scope. In particular, certified systems for quality and environmental management, energy management, occupational health and safety have a clear international, even global, orientation. Industry-specific quality management systems can also be counted among these (for example, automotive IATF 16949 or aerospace EN 9100).