The accreditation standard ISO/IEC 17021 is the basis for the internal management system of LinquaCert. It is an internationally recognized conformity assessment tool which defines requirements for organizations providing audit and certification of management systems.
The content of ISO/IEC 17021 includes the following sections:
- 4 Principles
- 5 General requirements for legal and contractual issues
- 6 Structural requirements (organizational structure)
- 7 Requirements for personnel with skills and assessment
- 8 Requirements for information and information sharing
- 9 Process requirements for audit planning, execution and certification
- 10 Management system requirements with assessment, manual, audits and measures
The ISO 17021 accreditation standard from LinquaCert
As a certification company, we naturally have high standards for our own work. Just as there are ISO standards for translation service providers, there are also standards for us as certifiers. ISO 17021 plays a very special role here.
ISO 17021 is an international standard that establishes requirements for certification authorities. These ensure that the certification process for our management system is carried out in a competent, consistent and transparent manner.
The standard was created in 2006 to create a globally valid standard for companies that perform certification.
ISO 17021 is intended for use by certification authorities that perform audits and certifications of management systems. It applies to those certification bodies that perform audits and certifications for management systems in the fields of quality assurance, environmental standards, and others. These certification bodies (also called registrars) can be non-governmental or governmental in nature and do not have to offer all types of management-system certification.
ISO 17021 allows us to demonstrate that we have established compliant processes to standardize operations. It means we meet the necessary organizational structure and can demonstrate the competence of our employees as well as a legal basis for our operations.
The standard also regulates the exchange and handling of data. This includes information on clients and orders as well as internal data. We can ensure that this is handled securely and in accordance with the standard.
When we conduct audits, we always work according to the same principle. ISO 17021 does not prescribe exactly how the processes must be designed. But it does require that they be applied uniformly. For you as a translation service provider, this means that every certification by us has the same process – and therefore always a consistently high level of quality.
As a certified company for the awarding of ISO 17100 and 18587 accreditation seals, it is very important to us that we ourselves are also constantly reassessed. This helps us maintain the high quality of our service.