ISO 17021 is an International Standard that provides Certification Bodies (CB) with a set of requirements that will enable them to ensure that their management system certification process is carried out in a competent, consistent and impartial manner.

The conformity assessments done by ISO 17021 certified CBs provide value to all types of organizations.
ISO/IEC 17021 Conformity assessment — Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems, as it is officially called, was prepared by the ISO Committee on conformity assessment (CASCO) in 2006. It was developed to fulfil the need to have an International Standard that could facilitate the recognition of bodies that were performing conformity assessments and the acceptance of their certifications on a national and international basis; making it easier to recognize management system certification in the interests of international trade.

Read the full description of the standard at ISOUpdate.com/standards/iso17021