Insights

Written by the certification body

Reference articles on accreditation, the certification path and what the standards actually require. CAS does not provide consultancy, so these explain the requirements — they do not design your management system.

All articles

A programme shaped by its inputs leaves a trailThere is a requirement about internal audit programmes that we can show you in full, because it is the one we are audited against.4 September 2026 · 5 min read Two of Stage 1's seven objectives are not about youIn week two we wrote that Stage 1 is an audit with defined outputs rather than an introductory visit, and listed what it examines. That list was…4 September 2026 · 4 min read The accreditation number checked out. That is not the same as the certificate being real.In week one we published a sentence we still stand behind: a genuine accredited certificate appears in all three registers, and a fabricated one…4 September 2026 · 5 min read What a certification body's advertising can tell you — and what it cannotFrom August 2026 our marketing covers seven things: ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 22000, ISO 50001, ISO 22301, and Kosher certification.4 September 2026 · 5 min read The next ISO 9001 revision: what is known so farEvery few months a new confident claim circulates about when the next edition of ISO 9001 arrives and what it will require. Most of it traces back to…4 September 2026 · 6 min read Your European client asked for an "accredited certificate". What do they mean?The request arrives in one line and could mean either of two things that have almost nothing in common. Answering the wrong one wastes months.4 September 2026 · 4 min read ISO 9001 clause 6.1: risk-based thinking is not a risk registerClause 6.1 requires no risk register. It requires no methodology, no matrix, no scoring, and no documented information at all.4 September 2026 · 5 min read Application review: what a certification body asks for, and whyMost organizations experience application review as a form. It is a gate.4 September 2026 · 5 min read Three steps to verify any ISO certificate before accepting a supplierA supplier sends you a certificate. You have three minutes and no specialist knowledge. Here is exactly what to do with them.4 September 2026 · 4 min read Why CAS does not provide consultancyWe are asked this most weeks, and usually with an edge of disbelief. You audit management systems. You know exactly what a conforming one looks like.…4 September 2026 · 6 min read The climate change amendments: what was actually addedIn February 2024 ISO published amendments to a large number of management system standards, including all six within our accredited scope. The change…4 September 2026 · 4 min read Kosher certification and access to export marketsA food manufacturer with ISO 22000 certification and a clean audit history can still be turned away by a buyer in New York, London or Tel Aviv. Not…4 September 2026 · 4 min read ISO 9001 clause 4.1, in plain languageClause 4.1 requires no document. That single fact explains most of what goes wrong with it.4 September 2026 · 5 min read The full granting path: from application to decision, in one mapCertification is not an inspection followed by a certificate. It is a defined sequence with named stages, an independent decision point, and a…4 September 2026 · 5 min read Accredited vs non-accredited ISO certificates: the difference in one lineAn accredited certificate leaves a trace in a public register. A non-accredited one leaves nothing.4 September 2026 · 6 min read