International Standards

What is a standard?

A standard is a document, established by consensus and approved by a recognised body, that provides rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, for common and repeated use, aimed at achieving the optimum degree of order in a given context (ISO/IEC Guide 2).

• Standards make life simpler and increase the reliability and effectiveness of the goods and services we use.
• Standards are created by bringing together the experience of all interested parties — producers, sellers, buyers, users and regulators.
• Standards are designed for voluntary use and do not impose regulations themselves.
• Voluntary standards become mandatory when they are incorporated into contracts, or referenced or adopted by government as part of a regulation to protect public health, safety and the environment.

Standards and technical regulations

The difference between a standard and a technical regulation lies in compliance: conformity with standards is voluntary, while technical regulations are mandatory by nature.

Standards used in accreditation

Accreditation bodies operate to ISO/IEC 17011, and conformity assessment bodies are assessed against the relevant standard in the ISO/IEC 17000 series — for example ISO/IEC 17021-1 for management system certification bodies, ISO/IEC 17065 for product certification bodies, ISO/IEC 17020 for inspection bodies, ISO/IEC 17024 for personnel certification bodies, and ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO 15189 for laboratories.