SHORT ANSWER: No, ISO 9001 certification does not have to be UKAS accredited.

First of all, it's important to understand that UKAS don't provide ISO 9001 certification directly. They're actually on the level above that, providing accreditation for the certification bodies who can get your business certified.

But UKAS-accredited certification companies are not the only bodies who can provide valid ISO 9001 certification. Other accreditation bodies do exist; for example, ISO Accelerator is accredited by the IAFDC, and this allows us to provide a dynamic alternative to UKAS-accredited certification services.

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ISO Accelerator's remote certification process makes it easy for small businesses to achieve ISO 9001 certification on a budget.

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Obtaining ISO 9001 certification for your company used to be a rather long and arduous journey.

On-site audits, a multi-stage assessment process, meetings upon meetings, paperwork upon paperwork...it's hard to make time for all of that, especially when you've already got the day-to-day running of your business to worry about.

So if you've decided that ISO 9001 isn't a priority for your organisation, that's understandable. Getting certified, and maintaining that certification once you've got it, is costly and time-consuming.

Or rather it was costly and time-consuming until ISO Accelerator came along.

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At ISO Accelerator, our remote certification process makes it easy for small businesses and startups to achieve ISO 14001 certification with minimal hassle and lower costs.

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A new version of the ISO 9001 standard is coming soon. ISO 9001:2026 is scheduled to roll out in September 2026, at which point it will replace ISO 9001:2015 as the current version of ISO 9001.

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