ISO 17021 and impartiality: can the company that sells your templates certify you?
In short: ISO 17021 (in full, ISO/IEC 17021-1) is the standard accredited certification bodies must meet, and its core rule is impartiality: whoever certifies your system must not have helped build it. Plain Standards is unaccredited, but we hold to that line: we never certify a system we built. Our templates are generic and sold to anyone, and you adapt and run them yourself, so your certificate carries weight with the customers who check it. See how our assessment stays independent.
I come at this from the owner’s side of the desk. A certificate is only worth having if the customer who reads it can trust it, and that trust rests on one thing: the person who signed it did not build what they were judging. So are we marking our own homework, when we sell the documents and also certify the system? Categorically, no. Our templates are the same generic documents anyone can buy. You adapt them to your business and run the system yourself, so when we assess it, we are checking a quality system you built, not one we wrote. If we ever build a system for a client, we never certify it. The rest of this page explains what the rule says and what being unaccredited means.
By Mike Armstrong, company director of over 30 years, trained as a Lead Auditor. Last reviewed 29 October 2026.
Let’s start with the standard itself, because it is shorter on mystery than its name suggests.
What is ISO 17021?
ISO/IEC 17021-1 is the international standard that sets the rules a certification body must follow to audit and certify management systems, such as ISO 9001 quality systems.
It is a standard for the certifiers, not for your business. You never need to read it to get certified. National accreditation bodies, such as ANAB in the US and UKAS in the UK, check certification bodies against it; a body that passes is accredited, and its certificates carry that body’s mark.
It comes in parts. Part 1 holds the general rules, including impartiality. Other parts set out what auditors must know for particular standards; ISO/IEC 17021-3, for example, covers the competence needed to audit and certify quality management systems. The edition of Part 1 in use as we write is ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015; ISO lists the latest edition on its website.
Most of Part 1 is about running a certification body properly. The part that matters to you, as the customer, is impartiality.
What the impartiality rules say, in plain English
Impartiality means the certification decision rests on the evidence alone, with nothing in it for the certifier either way. In practice, Part 1 turns that into a handful of firm rules:
- No consultancy, at all. An accredited certification body must not offer or provide management system consultancy. The standard defines consultancy as taking part in setting up, running or maintaining a management system, and gives two examples: preparing or producing manuals or procedures, and giving specific advice or solutions for building one.
- Generic information is not consultancy. Explaining what the requirements mean, describing methods and tools, and sharing non-confidential good practice are allowed, as long as nothing is a solution written for one particular client.
- A gap after related consultancy. If a client was helped by a consultancy linked to the certification body, the body must not certify that system for at least two years.
- A gap after internal audits. A certification body that carried out a client’s internal audits must not certify that system for at least two years.
Put simply: the body that judges a system should have no hand in making it. That is the principle we hold to. How we apply it is the next question.
Three ways to get a system and a certificate
The table compares the routes a small business usually meets. It describes how each one works, not which is better; the right route depends on what your customers ask for.
| A consultant builds it, an accredited body certifies it | One body builds it and certifies it | Plain Standards templates, then our assessment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who builds the system | A consultant, working on your business | The certification body itself | You, from generic templates anyone can buy |
| Who certifies it | An accredited certification body, separate from the consultant | The same body | Plain Standards, unaccredited |
| Allowed under ISO/IEC 17021-1? | Yes | No, for an accredited body | Not applicable: we are not accredited, and we did not build your system |
| Certificate accredited? | Yes | Not by a body following the standard | No |
| Suits | Customers or tenders that ask for an accredited certificate | Nobody who needs a certificate their customers can trust | Customers who want proof of a working quality system and accept an unaccredited certificate |
The middle column is the one the rules exist to stop. The question people reasonably ask is whether our column is the middle one in disguise. Here is the test.
Is selling templates consultancy?
The standard’s first example of consultancy is preparing or producing manuals or procedures, so this deserves a straight answer rather than a shrug.
Our templates are not written for you. They are the same documents for every buyer, sold openly to anyone, in the same way a book on the subject is. We do not see your business, interview your staff, write your procedures or decide how you should run anything. You adapt the documents and put the system to work yourself, and our email help is about how to use the documents, not solutions for your business.
In our view, that sits on the generic information side of the line the standard draws, rather than the client-specific side. The standard does not mention templates by name, so we will not claim any accreditation body has ruled on it for us. We would rather lay out the facts and let you judge.
There is one thing we do that is consultancy, and we say so plainly.
Where we draw the line, and why it is narrower than an accredited body’s
An accredited certification body may not offer consultancy at all. We do: for a small number of clients, we build a tailored ISO 9001 system from their own way of working. That is exactly the kind of work the standard has in mind, and it is one reason we are not accredited.
So our line is simpler and narrower: we never certify a system we built. Clients of our tailored system take their certification to a different, accredited certification body. That applies for good, not just for two years.
If you want us to build your system, our tailored ISO 9001 system explains how it works, including who certifies it.
Drawing the line is one thing. Keeping the assessment itself independent takes a few more habits.
How we keep the certification decision independent
- A certificate can be refused. If a system does not meet the standard, it does not get a certificate. You get a report saying what is missing.
- No discount for buying our templates. Certification costs the same whatever documents your system uses: ours, your own or a consultant’s.
- No commission on certification. Our affiliates earn nothing for sending us a certification client, and we pay no referral fees for certification.
- A conflict check before every client. We check for any link that could get in the way of a fair decision before we take the work on.
- The decision is recorded on its own. The certification decision is kept separate from the audit notes, so it can be looked at on its own.
- One name on every certificate. Mike Armstrong makes every certification decision and signs every certificate himself, so it is always clear who is accountable.
All of which leaves one thing to be clear about: what being unaccredited means for you.
What being unaccredited means for you
Plain Standards certification is unaccredited. No accreditation body, such as ANAB or UKAS, has assessed us against ISO/IEC 17021-1, and our certificate does not carry an accreditation mark. We follow the impartiality principle described on this page because it is right, not because an accreditation body requires it of us.
If your customer or a tender asks for an accredited certificate, you need an accredited certification body in your own country. If they want evidence that you run a real, working quality system, an unaccredited certificate backed by a genuine assessment can provide it.
Accredited vs unaccredited ISO 9001 explains the difference in full, so you can decide which you need before you spend anything.
To sum up
ISO 17021 is the rulebook for accredited certification bodies, and its heart is impartiality: the certifier must not build what it certifies. Plain Standards is unaccredited, so the standard does not bind us, but we hold to that line. Our templates are generic and you build your own system from them. We build tailored systems for a few clients, and we never certify those. And a certificate from us is a decision on evidence, which can go either way.
What next
See how our certification works
The remote assessment, the three-year cycle and what it costs.
Build your own system with the ISO 9001:2026 Certification-Ready System: every document you need, ready to adapt.
Frequently asked questions
What is ISO 17021?
ISO 17021, in full ISO/IEC 17021-1, is the international standard of requirements for bodies that audit and certify management systems such as ISO 9001. Accreditation bodies assess certification bodies against it. It applies to the certifier, not to the business being certified.
What is the difference between ISO 17021-1 and ISO 17021-3?
Part 1 sets the general rules for any body certifying management systems, including impartiality and how audits are run. Part 3 adds the specific knowledge auditors and certification bodies need for quality management systems under ISO 9001.
Is there a free PDF of ISO 17021?
ISO/IEC 17021-1 is a copyright standard. Official copies are sold by ISO and by national standards bodies such as ANSI in the US and BSI in the UK. You do not need a copy to get your business certified; it is written for certification bodies.
Can a certification body also be a consultant?
Not if it is accredited. ISO/IEC 17021-1 bars an accredited certification body from offering management system consultancy, such as writing a client’s manuals or procedures or giving client-specific solutions.
Does ISO 17021 apply to Plain Standards?
Not formally, because we are not accredited. We follow its impartiality principle in the way this page sets out: we never certify a system we built, and the certification decision rests on evidence alone.
Is Plain Standards certification accredited?
No. It is unaccredited. If you need an accredited certificate, use an accredited certification body in your own country.
About the author
Written by Mike Armstrong, senior ISO consultant, former company director, and founder of Plain Standards. In over 30 years running companies at director level, Mike built his own management systems to drive profit long before he adopted ISO 9001, so he comes at this from the owner’s side, not the auditor’s. Plain Standards helps small and medium sized businesses get ISO certified without a consultant.