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Our Accreditation

What is accreditation?

Accreditation is an independent assessment that ensures certification bodies have the technical competence and integrity of impartiality to deliver credible certification services. This is essential to building confidence and trust in certification.

UKAS defines accreditation as: a means of assessing, in the public interest, the technical competence and integrity of the organisations offering evaluation services including testing, inspection, calibration and certification.​

Why accreditation?

We believe in the integrity of standards and rigor of the certification process. That's why it's our policy to achieve accreditation for our services wherever possible.

Our Accreditations and Certifications

As an accredited certification body, NQA holds many accreditations and certifications.

ISO 17021-1:2015 To view our certificate click here
This is the international standard that contains the principles and requirements for certification bodies that certify management systems. It ensures competence, consistency and impartiality of the certification body. 

Cyber Essentials Certification To view our certificate click here
NQA holds Cyber Essentials certification which demonstrates our commitment to cyber security as well as ensuring we have the right processes in place to guard us against the most common cyber threats. Cyber Essentials is managed by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and is a required pre-requisite for any organisation undertaking work for the UK government. 

For more information click here.



MOD Employer Recognition Scheme – Silver Award 

This prestigious award celebrates the work NQA does in support of the Armed Forces and those who serve or who have served our country and their families. 

For more information click here.


CQI & IRCA Approved Training Partner To view our certificate click here.
NQA Certification Ltd holds the CQI and IRCA ATP (Approved Training Partner) status. This means that a number of our training courses within our portfolio have been and continue to be approved for use by CQI and IRCA. Our CQI and IRCA approved training courses ensures that NQA has the knowledge and capability to offer training courses that are aligned with the CQI and IRCA minimum requirements for accreditation. Our courses include lead auditor courses, conversion courses, internal auditor courses and risk management courses. 

To view our range of training courses click here.

Who accredits us?

NQA is currently accredited for its services by the following Accreditation Bodies and industry regulators. These regulators regularly and rigorously assess us against international standards to ensure our competence, impartiality and performance capability.

* This approval relates to the delivery of RT-05 certification in the Italian construction sector.

Our accreditation certificates

Impartiality statement

Impartiality is a fundamental principle of accredited certification. This means that certification decisions are based solely on objective evidence of conformity and are not influenced by any other interests.

We take potential conflicts of interest very seriously and ensure that impartiality is not compromised at any time. In particular, we ensure that, irrespective of which consultancy may have been employed to implement or maintain a client's management system:

Unaccredited certification

NQA's policy is to provide accredited certification wherever possible. Some schemes do not have an accreditation and in those cases we still apply the same rigor, processes, competence requirements and impartiality as if it were accredited.

Unaccredited certification can be an attractive way of achieving certification quickly and cheaply. However, it can have serious shortcomings including:

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has published a position statement on unaccredited certification on its website (BEIS policy on unaccredited certification).

Ready to start your journey?

We'll give you a clear indication of the costs of gaining and maintaining certification.