The body must keep a directory of certified products with the product, the normative documents and the client, and must confirm validity on request.
What applies today
The body must maintain information on certified products that contains at least an identification of the product, the standards or other normative documents against which conformity was certified, and an identification of the client. The scheme decides which parts of that information must be published or made available on request in a directory, whether through publications, electronic media or another means. At a minimum, the body must tell anyone who asks whether a particular certificate is still valid. If a scheme runs the directory and the body feeds it, that directory can meet the requirement.
Why it matters
The directory is how a buyer, regulator or consumer checks a claim without contacting the client. It is also a discipline on the body: a product that cannot be found in the directory, or a certificate that still appears after withdrawal, is visible to everyone. The validity answer is the minimum service, even where the scheme does not require a public directory.
The public FDIS contents lists clause 7.8 as Directory of certified products. 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 process clause. The public record confirms the number and title, and the process as described today is what an assessment uses until publication. A first artefact an assessor commonly asks for here is product, documents, client and status for each certificate. The party this touches first is The directory owner and the client services team that answer validity questions.
What the assessor asks for
| Category | Artefact to have ready |
|---|---|
| Directory record | Product, documents, client and status for each certificate |
| Publication rule | Scheme requirement for what is published |
| Validity route | Channel for a validity enquiry and a sample response |
| Status update | Record showing the directory changed with a suspension or withdrawal |
One common question. pick a withdrawn certificate and check whether the directory still shows it as valid. A stale directory is a common and serious finding.
Common failures
- The directory lists clients but not the normative documents
- A withdrawn certificate stays live for months
- No one can answer a validity question outside office hours
Prepare before publication
Reconcile the directory with the certificate register. Mark every mismatch and fix the process that caused it.
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 7.8 has no separate date.
Cross-references
7.7 Certification documentation · 7.11 Termination, reduction, suspension or withdrawal · 4.6 Publicly available information
Source
Source for 7.8: ISO/IEC 17065:2012, Clause 7.8, 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.