Certification exists to give interested parties confidence that a product, process or service meets specified requirements, through impartial and competent third-party attestation.
What applies today
Certification exists to give everyone with an interest confidence that a product, process or service meets stated requirements. Its worth comes from the level of trust built when a third party shows, impartially and competently, that the requirements are met. Interested parties include the clients of certification bodies, the buyers of the firms that hold the certificate, government authorities, non-governmental organisations, consumers and the public. The principles that inspire confidence are set out in the rest of the annex.
Why it matters
The annex is informative, but it explains why the normative clauses are written as they are. A body that treats certification as a commercial service sells a certificate. A body that understands the principle sells confidence, and that changes how it handles an inconvenient finding, a pressure from a large client or a request to move faster. The list of interested parties is also a useful map for a transition communication: not only clients, but their customers and the public have a stake.
The public FDIS contents lists Annex A and Annex B as informative annexes and does not number A.1 General principles separately. The FDIS wording is not held; the principle above is the 2012 text.
Where this clause lands in the revision
Annex A.1 is the general principles principle. The FDIS keeps Annex A, and this principle still explains how the normative clauses are read. It creates no new obligation and carries no separate FDIS date. A first artefact an assessor commonly asks for here is certification policy that states the confidence purpose. The party this touches first is Top management and anyone explaining what certification is for.
What the assessor asks for
| Category | Artefact to have ready |
|---|---|
| Policy | Certification policy that states the confidence purpose |
| Client information | Explanation of what certification means and does not mean |
| Interested parties | Map of the parties who rely on certificates and how their interests are considered |
| Board record | Decision that shows the principle was applied to a difficult case |
One common question. ask how the body explains the limits of a certificate. An answer that only lists marketing benefits misses the principle.
Common failures
- The website presents certification as a quality badge with no explanation of its limits
- Client communication never names the parties who rely on the certificate
- The principle is quoted in the manual and never used in a decision
Prepare before publication
Write a one-page explanation of what the certificate means for the client, the client's customer and the public. Use it in onboarding.
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 A.1 has no separate date.
Cross-references
A.2 Impartiality · A.6 Responsibility · 4.6 Publicly available information
Source
Source for A.1: ISO/IEC 17065:2012, Annex A.1, 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.