Possibly the number one mistake that we have seen others make is not fully comprehending the sometimes very subtle, but critically important, difference between a UKAS and a non-UKAS certification body. A mistake that can be both expensive and tortuous.
The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) is the UK government body for policing certification bodies. A certification body becomes “accredited” once UKAS has approved them, their people, their systems and their processes, to “assess other companies” to various management (and technical) standards.
However, there are also a number of other “rogue” bodies that purport to award various ISO standards that will happily take your hard-earned cash and give you your “ISO documentation AND a certificate”, often within 30 days. Any organisation offering BOTH the system development AND certification, especially if it is within 30 days, is highly likely to be a non-UKAS approved certification body and that certificate almost certainly won’t be worth the paper it’s written on.
As a result, companies can mistakenly believe they are obtaining a legitimate ISO registration when in fact, they are not.
Solution & resources
Check the credibility of your proposed certification body on the UKAS website.