Audit & Certification Standard Under Revision

On October 15, 2025 ISO initiative a review of ISO 17021-1:2015 Requirements for Bodies Providing Audit and Certification of Management System — Part 1: Requirements. ISO 17021-1, is the foundational standard used to certify all management systems, and maintain the certificate life cycle.

Generally, each management system is addressed by a dedicated standard that is part of the 17021-1 series, As an example, the ISO 9001 QMS standard is covered by Part 3 (ISO 17021-3). In other cases the audit and certification standard is an extension of the management system series. ISO 20000 (Service Management) is addressed by ISO 20000-6:2017; ISO 27001 (Information Security) is addressed by ISO 27006; ISO 27701 (Privacy Management) is addressed by ISO 27706; and ISO 42001 is addressed by ISO 42006. All of these standards start with ISO 17021-1 and identify the unique aspects, extensions, and requirements necessary to establish the audit and certify an organization against a specific management system standard.

The review and revision process will probably last all of 2026. The revision is overseen by CASCO, the ISO Technical Committee responsible for conformity assessments.