study of the development of international quality management standards shows that they evolved from military standards following World War ll. Their structure and content were influenced to a large extent by United States Military Standards MIL-Q-9858, UK DEF Stan 05-20 series and NATO quality standards (AQAP). In the 1770s, pressure from industry to alleviate the burden of multiple assessment caused by many differing supplier standards led to the development of a range of national standards, such as BS 5750 in the UK and CSA Z299 in Canada.

The British Standards Institution published BS 5750 in 1979 which established a recognized UK national standards. The International Organization for Standardization, identifying an increasing global market for goods and service and the need for international harmonization, formed a technical committee (ISO TC 176) to draw up a series of international quality management standards and, in 1987, ISO 9000 was published. This replaced BS 5750 in the UK and was published in numerous countries around the world. The standard was further revised in 1994.

Quality management certification in the UK was given impetus by the 1982 government white paper on quality standards and international competitiveness, which identified a number of areas where British business was falling behind. Alarm bells were ringing over growth in trade deficit figures and the government looked for ways of addressing the apparent shortcomings in British business and industry.

Quality management certification was identified as one response and a National Quality Campaign was launched in 1983. Funding was made available in the form of DTI grants for industry and certification bodies to implement management systems. Major organization such as the MoD, British rail and British telecom supported the initiative, recognizing the advantage of a common standard applied within their individual companies and imposed on suppliers.

Once this process was under way, the certification industry grew rapidly, with many organizations coming to regard certification as a necessary. The annual rate of certificates issued peaked in 1994/95 when DTI grants were withdrawn. Following this withdrawal of grants, certification bodies become more competitive, responsive and accountable.

As the millennium approaches, the industry and the way it is perceived has matured. Once regarded as complicated, bureaucratic and expensive, certification is now seen as offering very real and tangible benefits to all sections of business. Surveys show 'business efficiency 'as the single most important reason for the introduction of quality management disciplines and to again registration.

To provide meaning certification services, a certification body must be able to demonstrate competence and impartiality. For this reason, certification bodies themselves are accredited in recognition that they meet the internationally accepted standard (EN 45012) covering integrity, independence and technical competence, and that their assessors are capable of assessing companies against standards, such as ISO 9000, to a consistent level.

To facilitate this, countries have established national accreditation system for certification bodies. The success of such system in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in particular, has encouraged many other countries, including the United States and Japan, to set up and administer similar systems. When a company gains certification from a body which is it self accredited to a national system, it gives customers confidence in the company's quality to deliver goods or services to specified requirements, Certification thus becomes a facilitator of trade. The certificate of registration is evidence of a company's commitment to quality and, accreditation is the statement of competence of the certification body.

Two EU countries, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, were the first to establish credible and viable national system. Prior to August 1995, the United Kingdom government sponsored the National Accreditation Council for Certification Bodies (NACCB) as the UK's authoritative body for certification matters. At the time, NACCB had accredited 48 certification bodies, employing more than 1,100 assessors. They, in turn, had registered more than 44,000 companies against ISO 9000. In August 1995, NACCB was replaced by the United Accreditation Service (UKAS) which was established to combine the work of NACCB and the National Measurement Accreditation Service (NAMAS), the accreditation unit for laboratories and test houses. As certification bodies have to operate in a multitude of different business areas, a recognised accreditation body for each area they offer certification in should accredit them. The list of business areas they are accredited for it termed their scope.

The international standard ISO 9000 has their requirement standards, ISO 9001, 9002 and 9003. Each part covers a range of activities, such as design, manufacture, servicing and inspection (ISO 9001), manufacture, servicing and inspection (ISO 9002) or inspection (ISO 9003), Within each of these areas, a business has its specific activity described as their scope of registration. A potential buyer considering a supplier because of its ISO 9000 certification should ensure that the supplier's product or service is covered by the scope of its certification of registration.

UKAS provides a unified national accreditation service to bodies undertaking certification of products, personnel and management systems (including environmental management). and to laboratories performing tests and calibrations. Any certification body in the world can seek accreditation from UKAS. Acting under licence, it advises the Secretary of States for Trade and Industry on the accreditation of certification bodies and other related matters. UKAS is a company limited by guarantee. Under a memorandum of understanding, the DTI recognises the unique national role UKAS plays in the filed of accreditation and allows it to provide accreditation in it own right, without referrals or recommendations to the DTI, although this is subject to strict compliance with national and international standards. The accredited certification bodies are kept under constant surveillance during the validity of their certificate. UKAS use the by now familiar NACB logo incorporating the Royal Crown and Tick.

The Netherlands also has its own national accreditation council, Raad voor Accreditate (RvA), which receives government support and industry sponsorship and industry sponsorship. AvA consists of a board of government draw from various groups such as industry, consumers, accredited certification bodies, the government and scientists. The Board formulates accreditation criteria while a small executive committee, drawn from the Board, decides whether accreditation should be granted to a certification body, with approval and rejection taking place on the basis of an assessment report. Accreditation is granted for a two year period and a certificate is issued by RvA as a mark of approval. After two years a new assessment takes place and the certificates is issued. RvA has 151accredited certification bodies at the time of writing.

In June 1991, the United become one of the first non-European country to set up an accreditation body, it is referred to as the Joint American Accreditation Body for Registrars of Quality System or ANSI/ RAB. Of the 30 recognised accreditation bodies around the world, 23 are full members of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF). As well as the three mentioned above, these include Australia and New Zealand, Japan, South Africa, Canada, China, 10 more European countries and others from all over the world.

Of the countries recognising ISO 9000 as the standards for quality management system around the world, more than half are developing countries such as Brazil, Chile, China, Columbia, the Czech Republic, Nigeria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bangladesh, Vietnam etc. In many of these countries, the national standards body also carries out quality systems certification and registration although no formal national accreditation system exists. In almost all the developing countries listed in the ISO Directory, foreign certification bodies such as National Quality Assurance (NQA) of the United Kingdom, Det Norsk Veritas Quality Assurance of Norway, SGS International Certification Service of Switzerland and TuV Cert of Germany, Also provide quality systems certification and registration. All these certification bodies and some operate in multi-national markets.

There are a number of organisations, some international and some operating in a single country, that promote the mutual recognition of accreditation bodies and perform other functions relating to the industry.

The European Co-operation of Accreditation (EA) is a joint operation of multi-national accreditation in Europe. Its main objective is to establish a multi-national agreement between its members on the basis of mutual confidence. Some 17 European countries have signed the EA memorandum of understanding. IAF is a form of national accreditation bodies and 17 of its members have signed a multilateral mutual recognition agreement.

IQNet is a long established group of certification bodies, made up primarily of national standards bodies and other no profit making organizations. The members of this network recognise each other as certification bodies providing certification service in line with the European standards and recommendations from the IAF.

The Association of British Certification Bodies (ABCB) is the UK's trade association for third party certification bodies. It was founded in 1984 in response to a Department of Trade & Industry Proposal that certification bodies should associate together to provide a collective input to the national accreditation body. The ABCB become a limited company in 1996 and is recognised by the government, UKAS and other national and international organisations as the sole UK trade association representing certification bodies. It is a member of UKAS and is represented on various committees, including the UKAS Policy Advisory Committee, British Standards Committees and International committees. The ABCB played a major part in the implementation of the 39 EAC scopes, acknowledging members' interests. Its work continuously promotes accredited certification and the interests of certification bodies.

The Independent International Organization for Certification (IIOC) is made up of seven international certification bodies. IIOC members have signed a memorandum of understanding negating the need for multiple assessment and working to improve the reputation of ISO 9000 certification as a benchmark for quality worldwide.

ITQS is a group of certification bodies, which deals purely with assessment certification of quality systems in the information technology sector and, as such, is the only sectorial group of bodies. ITQS is a multi-lateral, mutual recognition agreement for the information technology sector that is approved by the European Committees for information Technology and Communication Testing and Certification (ECTIC) and the European Organisation for Testing and Certification (EOTC). A company certified by one ITQS member becomes registered with ITQS and receives an annex from them attesting that the certificate is recognised by the other members.

The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies. The scope of ISO covers standardization in all fields except electrical and electronic engineering which are the responsibilities of the International Electro technical Communication (IEC). Together, ISO and IEC from the world's largest non-government system for voluntary industrial and technical collaboration at an international level. ISO's technical work is published in the from of international standards or guides. ISO/IEC Guides, drawn up by ISO/CASCO- the ISO committee on conformity assessment, provide guidelines and standards on the operation of accreditation bodies, certification bodies and other related activities.

However, the ISO/IEC Guides are not the only documents in the world that contain type of requirements. In 1986, the European Commission initiated the development of the EN 45000 series of standards. Since then, the use of standards has been considered as a means to support the new policy in the field of conformity assessment that was set out in the resolution on the global approach to conformity assessment. Standardisation bodies within European responsible for developing standards for conformity assessment are Committee European D' normalisation (CEN) and Committee European D nonmalisation Electro Technic (CENELEC). Theses standards being to the EN 45000 series and are developed with the aim to harmonise the criteria for conformity assessment.