KLN and ISO 9001

The below information has been created to give KLN colleagues an overview of:

- ISO as an organisation
- ISO 9001 as a Management System Standard
- UKAS as the accrediting body for organisations providing ISO 9001 certification

It should provide context for KLN’s ISO 9001 project and answer some questions you may have about what UKAS-accredited certification is all about, and what it sets out to achieve.

What is ISO?
ISO is the International Organization for Standardization. It is an independent, international
organisation that develops and publishes Standards used by organisations around the world.
ISO was established in 1947 and is based in Geneva. Its role is to bring together experts from
different countries to agree on internationally accepted ways of doing things, across a wide range
of industries and activities.
ISO itself does not regulate organisations and does not enforce compliance. Instead, it provides
agreed Standards that organisations can choose to adopt.

Which countries are involved?
ISO is made up of national standards bodies, with one official member per country. These
members represent their country’s interests in the development of Standards.
ISO has members from over 160 countries, including:
 The United Kingdom (represented by the British Standards Institution, BSI)
 Countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Oceania
Each member country contributes experts who sit on technical committees responsible for
developing and reviewing ISO Standards. Standards are agreed through a consensusbased
process, meaning no single country or organisation controls the final document.

Who oversees ISO?
ISO is not controlled by any government and does not sit under a regulatory authority. It operates
independently and is governed by its members.
This independence is intentional. It helps ensure that ISO standards are:
 neutral
 internationally credible
 applicable across different legal systems and markets
Although ISO Standards are voluntary, they are often referenced by customers, regulators, and
contracts, which is a key reason why many organisations choose to adopt them.

What is ISO’s purpose?
ISO’s purpose is to develop Standards that promote:
 Consistency
 Quality
 Safety
 Efficiency
 Reliability
By establishing common frameworks and agreed ways of working, ISO Standards can help
organisations:
 Reduce inconsistency and uncertainty
 Improve performance
 Enable effective communication across supply chains
 Support national and international trade
In practical terms, ISO Standards provide a shared reference point for what ‘good practice’ looks
like in a given area.

What does ISO publish?
ISO publishes International Standards covering a wide range of subjects, from technical
specifications to management practices.
These Standards can be grouped into two main types:
1. Technical and compliance standards
These standards define specific requirements or characteristics, such as:
 Product specifications
 Safety requirements
 Testing methods
 Measurements and compatibility
They help ensure products and services are safe, reliable, and consistent, regardless of where
they are produced or used.
2. Management System Standards
Management System Standards focus on how an organisation is managed, rather than what it
produces.
They provide structured frameworks for managing key areas such as:
 Quality
 Environmental impact
 Health and safety
 Information security
These Standards set out requirements and principles, not detailed instructions. This allows
organisations of different sizes and sectors to apply them in a way that suits their own context.
ISO 9001 is one of these Management System Standards.

Why does ISO publish Standards?
ISO publishes Standards to create internationally agreed frameworks that organisations can rely
on when designing, running and improving their processes.

The aim is to:
 Encourage good practice
 Reduce risk and inefficiency
 Improve confidence between organisations, customers, and other interested parties
(stakeholders)
 Promote a culture of continual improvement
By using ISO Standards, organisations align themselves with globally-recognised approaches,
rather than developing systems in isolation.

What is ISO 9001?
ISO 9001 is an international Standard for Quality Management
Systems (QMS). It sets out the requirements an organisation must
meet in order to establish, implement, maintain, and continually
improve a Quality Management System.
ISO 9001 applies to any organisation, regardless of size,
sector, or industry. It is used worldwide, with well over 1 million certificates issued across
manufacturing, services, construction, healthcare, public services, and many other sectors.

What does ISO 9001 set out to achieve?
ISO 9001 is designed to help organisations:
 consistently provide products and services that meet customer requirements
 improve customer satisfaction
 establish clear, controlled, and efficient processes
 identify and manage risks and opportunities that affect quality
 drive continual improvement in how the organisation produces its products or delivers its
services
The standard does not define what quality should look like for a specific organisation. Instead, it
provides a framework that helps organisations establish, control, and improve their own processes
in a structured way.

Principles behind ISO 9001
ISO 9001 is built around a small number of key principles that guide how organisations manage
quality. These include:
 Customer focus – understanding and meeting customer needs
 Leadership – clear direction and accountability from top management
 Process approach – managing activities as interconnected processes
 Riskbased thinking – identifying and addressing risks and opportunities
 Evidencebased decisionmaking – using data to guide actions
 Continual improvement – improving performance over time

These principles are embedded throughout the requirements of the Standard.

How ISO 9001 is used in practice
Organisations use ISO 9001 to:
 build a structured Management System based on existing ways of working
 improve consistency and control across processes
 clarify roles and responsibilities relating to processes
 monitor performance and identify improvement opportunities
ISO 9001 can be used:
 internally, as a management framework
 externally, as the basis for certification.
Certification to ISO 9001 is optional and is carried out by independent certification bodies, not by
ISO itself.

What is UKAS?
UKAS is the United Kingdom Accreditation Service. It is the UK’s sole
national accreditation body, formally recognised by the UK government to
assess and accredit organisations that provide services such as certification,
testing, inspection, calibration, verification and validation.
UKAS does not certify organisations to ISO Standards. Instead, it accredits
certification bodies — in effect, it checks the organisations that do the
checking. This accreditation provides confidence that certification bodies are competent, impartial,
and operating to internationally recognised Standards.

Why does UKAS accreditation matter?
Not all certification bodies operate to the same standard. In the UK, any organisation can claim to
offer ISO certification, but only those accredited by UKAS have been independently assessed for
competence and impartiality.
UKAS accreditation matters because it:
 confirms the certification body has been rigorously assessed
 ensures auditors are competent and impartial
 provides confidence that audits follow recognised methodologies
 supports acceptance of certificates by customers, regulators, and in tenders
Many organisations only discover the importance of UKAS accreditation when a certificate is
rejected by a customer or during a tender process because it was issued by a nonaccredited
provider.

How UKAS fits into ISO certification
 ISO develops the Standards (such as ISO 9001)
 Certification bodies audit organisations against those Standards.
 UKAS accredits the certification bodies.
This separation ensures independence