Many organizations strive to ensure whether they, or their suppliers, associates and partners are managing their business and their risks effectively, and possess certifications like ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, OHSAS 18001:2007, ISO 27001:2013, ISO 22000 etc. which is often the preferred and easiest way to evidence this. If you are reliant upon the assurances that an ISO certificate can provide, checking whether the certificate is valid, is an important but not particularly difficult process.
Is the certificate the one you expected?
Check that the certificate is actually the one you asked for. If you want to know if the organization is managing information security risk, an ISO 14001 certificate (environmental management) is no use.
Is the certificate issued to the correct organization?
Make sure that the name on the certificate is what you expected. There can legitimate reasons for it to be different – many companies have quite complex structures – but you should understand the relationship between the name you expected, and the name on the certificate. Make sure that the address is correct, including the Postal Code.
Does the certificate scope cover the activities you are interested in?
Not all certificates cover all activities conducted by their organization. If you are interested in buying networking equipment from a supplier, a certificate that only covers photocopier maintenance services doesn’t provide you with the right assurances. Make sure, the scope statement (s) is spell correct and grammatically appropriate.
Is the certificate in-date?
Certificates always come with an issue date and expiry date, usually at most 3 or 5 years from when the certificate was issued. Check that the certificate is still valid at the current date. If an expiry date is missing, there is also a problem. Generally, Euro Veritas also provides the Current Issue Date of an Individual Certificate.
Is the certificate issued by a recognized certification body?
Check the credentials of Euro Veritas at www.euroveritas.com and www.bar-registrars.org. This should be the primary method of recognizing a certification body. It is important to stress that possession of a certificate not recognized through this method is not evidence that the organization does not conform to the standard. Authenticity of the Euro Veritas can be verified by writing to info@bar-registrars.org.
Finally
If a certificate has passed all these checks then you can be reasonably sure that it is a valid certificate. This does not take into account the possibility that the certificate presented to you is not authentic. To check the authenticity of a certificate, contact us at http://www.eurocertregistrars.com/clientcheck.php. You may put in the Certificate Registration Number and check the details. In case you have any doubt, or certificate details are not found, you may contact us directly at info@eurocertregistrars.com.
An ISO Standards certificate is a valuable asset to most companies, and should only be available to those who have earned the right to display it. Justly acquired, it should give customers of the holder the confidence they need to use the services of the holder with peace of mind.
Sadly, as with any valuable asset, some will try to copy them in order to make gains from the trust they should bring, had they been earned properly. For this reason we feel it is important for those putting trust in holders of certification to be able to verify their authenticity.
We have created a system whereby every legitimate certificate issued by our fully skilled audit team, and verified by our Scheme Manager or Principal Auditor is entered on to our online register, as is the web address entered on to each certificate issued to guide the viewer on how the confirm its genuine status.
