Don't go for non-UKAS 9001 etc ;certification

There are people claiming that they can provide systems and certificates to 9001 and other standards. There is no legal requirement to use a UKAS-accredited certification body, but accreditation is the assurance that the body follows rigorous systems and therefore major if not most customers regard non-UKAS certification as worthless.

Done sensibly, you can get certification in a short time, but UKAS rules are that you should have been running the system for at least 3 months. So, if someone is claiming less than that, be wary.

At SSS, we provide repair services for unworkable systems. One client has just asked us about repairing existing 9001 & 14001 systems which the non-UKAS auditor accepts, but which don't add internal value to them. Could SSS bring them up to the standard of the UKAS-acceptable 18001 system we provided.

See more about certification and accreditation (people get mixed up about these).