The body must publish its scheme rules, fee basis, client rights and duties, and complaint and appeal routes, and give them on request.
What applies today
The body has to maintain, and provide on request, information about the certification schemes it operates. That includes the evaluation procedures and the rules for granting, maintaining, extending, reducing, suspending, withdrawing or refusing certification. It must describe how it is financed and give general information about the fees charged to applicants and clients. It must set out what applicants and clients may expect and must do, including the limits on using its name, its mark and any description of the certificate. It must also describe how complaints and appeals are handled.
Why it matters
Public information is the outside world's check on a private process. A client, a competitor or a consumer should be able to find the rules that govern a certificate without asking the body. The clause also reduces disputes: a client that knew the suspension rules in advance has less room to argue that the decision was arbitrary. The fee basis is general information, not a price list for every client.
The public FDIS contents lists clause 4.6 as Publicly available information. The FDIS requirement wording is not held, so the requirement above is the 2012 text that applies until publication.
Where this clause lands in the revision
This is a general requirement. The public contents keeps its number and title, so the 2012 wording remains the basis of an assessment until the new edition is published. A first artefact an assessor commonly asks for here is live page with scheme rules, fee basis, rights and duties and complaint route. The party this touches first is The communications lead and the certification manager who own the public pages.
What the assessor asks for
| Category | Artefact to have ready |
|---|---|
| Public page | Live page with scheme rules, fee basis, rights and duties and complaint route |
| Version control | Document register showing the public version matches the controlled version |
| Request log | Record of information supplied on request and the date |
| Scheme list | Current list of schemes with their rules and status |
One common question. open the public page during the assessment. A page that still describes the previous scheme or a withdrawn service is a visible finding.
Common failures
- The website describes the service but not the suspension and withdrawal rules
- The fee page is a sales page with no basis for charges
- The complaint route is an internal inbox with no published address
Prepare before publication
Open the public page on a phone and try to find the four required subjects in under a minute. Fix what you cannot find.
Dates that matter
The public record gives stage 50.20 on 4 August 2026 and voting to 27 October 2026. The planning date, 15 February 2027, is an estimate from that stage and not an ISO date, and clause 4.6 has no separate date.
Cross-references
4.1.2 Certification agreement · 4.4 Non-discriminatory conditions · 7.11 Termination, reduction, suspension or withdrawal · 7.13 Complaints and appeals
Source
Source for 4.6: ISO/IEC 17065:2012, Clause 4.6, with the ISO/IEC FDIS 17065 public record. Our statement, not the instrument verbatim; the FDIS wording is not held.
Not legal advice; does not certify. A reading of the requirement and the evidence an assessor commonly samples, not a substitute for the standard or your accreditation body's rules.