Terms of service

About these terms and acceptance

These terms are issued by UKCert (“UKCert”, “we”, “us”, “our”). They apply to every quotation we issue, every application we accept and every assessment, certification and surveillance activity we carry out, as well as to your use of this website.

You accept these terms when you do any of the following:

• sign or accept a quotation, proposal or certification agreement from us;
• submit an application for certification;
• instruct us to begin work, or allow an assessment to proceed; or
• continue to hold a certificate issued by us.

Our services are supplied to organisations acting in the course of a business. Where there is any conflict between documents, the following order of precedence applies: first, a signed certification agreement or contract; second, the published rules of the certification scheme concerned; third, our quotation; and fourth, these terms. Any terms printed on a client purchase order, acknowledgement or similar document do not apply and are expressly excluded.

Definitions

• Assessment — any audit or evaluation activity we carry out, including document review, initial assessment stages, surveillance, recertification and special audits.
• Certificate — a document we issue confirming a certification decision, identifying the standard, the scope and the period of validity.
• Certification decision — our formal decision to grant, maintain, extend, reduce, refuse, suspend or withdraw certification.
• Certification mark — any logo, mark or symbol we licence to a client to signify certification.
• Client — the organisation that applies for, or holds, certification from us, or that instructs us to carry out an assessment.
• Nonconformity — a failure to meet a requirement of the standard, of the scheme, or of the client's own management system.
• Scheme — the set of rules, requirements and procedures under which certification against a particular standard is operated.
• Scheme owner — the organisation that owns and publishes the rules of a scheme.
• Scope — the activities, products, services and sites covered by a certificate, as stated on it.
• Standard — the normative document against which an assessment is carried out.
• Surveillance — the periodic assessment activity carried out during the validity of a certificate to confirm continuing conformity.
• Working day — any day other than a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday in England and Wales.

Scope of our services

Depending on what has been agreed in the quotation, our services may include:

• reviewing an application and determining the scope, duration and resourcing of the assessment;
• a first-stage assessment to review documented information, site-specific conditions and readiness;
• a second-stage assessment to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of the management system on site;
• evaluating the assessment findings and taking a certification decision;
• issuing a certificate and maintaining the certificate record;
• planned surveillance assessments during the certification period;
• recertification at the end of each certification cycle; and
• special assessments — for example to extend or reduce a scope, to verify corrective action, or short-notice assessments in response to a complaint or a change at the client.

What we do not do

We do not provide consultancy on a management system that we then certify. We will not design, implement, document, maintain or internally audit a client's management system, act as its management representative, or advise on how to meet the requirements of a standard, where we are the body assessing that system. We will explain our assessment process, the meaning of a finding and the requirements of the standard in general terms, but explaining a requirement is not advising how to satisfy it.

We do not offer certification on condition that a client uses a named consultant or consultancy, and we do not accept commission, introduction fees or any other benefit for directing a client to a consultant. These restrictions exist to protect the impartiality of our certification decisions, and they cannot be waived by agreement.

We do not act as a regulator, and an assessment is not a legal audit. Assessment against a standard does not relieve the client of any duty owed to a regulator, customer or any other person.

Client obligations

The client shall, at its own cost:

• always fulfil the requirements of the standard and of the scheme, including any changes published by the scheme owner;
• give the assessment team access, at reasonable times, to all sites, areas, records, equipment, personnel, subcontractors and processes within the scope, including access requested at short notice where a scheme allows it;
• provide accurate, complete and truthful information, and not withhold anything relevant to a certification decision;
• make arrangements, where required, for the presence of observers, technical experts, interpreters or a witnessing body;
• ensure the health, safety and welfare of our personnel while they are on the client's premises, brief them on site risks, and supply any personal protective equipment specific to the site;
• investigate and resolve nonconformities within the timescales stated in the assessment report, and provide evidence of the correction and corrective action taken;
• keep a record of all complaints made to it that relate to the certified scope, and of the action taken, and make that record available to us on request;
• comply with the requirements on use of certification marks set out below, and make no claim about certification that is misleading or that goes beyond the certified scope; and
• pay our invoices in accordance with the agreed payment terms.

Notifying changes

The client shall inform us without undue delay, and in any event within ten working days, of any change that may affect its ability to conform with the requirements of certification, including changes to:

• its legal, commercial, ownership or organisational status;
• its name, registered address, contact details or key personnel;
• its sites, including new, closed or relocated premises within the scope;
• the products, services, processes or activities covered by the scope;
• the management system itself, where the change is significant; and
• any prosecution, enforcement action, regulatory intervention, serious incident, product recall or major complaint relating to the certified scope.

Quotations and fees

Fees are always quoted on scope. There is no published price list, and no figure in this document, because the effort required for an assessment depends on factors that differ for every organisation, including:

• the standard or standards to be assessed, and whether assessments are combined or integrated;
• the number of employees, shifts and sites, and whether sampling across sites is permitted by the scheme;
• the complexity and risk of the activities, processes and products in the scope;
• the maturity of the management system and the outcome of any previous assessment;
• the languages required, and travel and subsistence for site attendance.

We will set out the fees, what they cover and the period for which the quotation remains open in a written quotation before any work begins. Surveillance and recertification fees for the certification cycle will be stated in the certification agreement or reviewed annually as set out in it.

Work outside the quoted scope is chargeable and will be quoted separately, including:

• special or follow-up assessments to verify corrective action;
• assessments to extend, reduce or transfer a scope;
• short-notice assessments arising from a complaint or a change at the client;
• reissue of certificates following a change requested by the client;
• translation, interpretation and document handling beyond what was quoted; and
• visits cancelled, postponed or curtailed at short notice, or abortive visits where access, personnel or records are not available as arranged.

Invoices are payable in accordance with the terms stated on them. All fees are exclusive of VAT and any other applicable tax, which is added at the prevailing rate. We may charge interest and recovery costs on overdue sums under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. We may withhold a certification decision, decline to issue or reissue a certificate, or suspend certification where invoices remain unpaid after we have given written notice.

Certification decisions and their limits

Every certification decision is taken by competent personnel who did not carry out the assessment on which it is based. Decisions are made only on the objective evidence gathered during the assessment and on the requirements of the standard and the scheme. We may grant, maintain, extend, reduce, refuse, suspend or withdraw certification, and we give written reasons for a refusal or an adverse decision.

What a certificate means. A certificate issued by us confirms that, on the evidence sampled at the time of the assessment, the client's management system was found to conform with the specified standard within the stated scope.

What a certificate does not mean. Assessment is a sampling exercise carried out at a point in time. Accordingly, a certificate is not, and must not be presented as:

• a warranty or guarantee of the quality, performance or safety of any product, service or process supplied by the client;
• a statement that the client complies, or has complied, with any statutory or regulatory requirement;
• a statement that no nonconformity exists, or that none will arise between assessments;
• an endorsement or recommendation of the client by us;
• advice on which any third party may rely; or
• a form of insurance or indemnity.

Responsibility for conformity, for the effectiveness of the management system and for legal compliance rests at all times with the client. Certificates remain our property, are issued subject to these terms and must be returned or destroyed on request when certification ends. We maintain a record of the certificates we have issued and their current status, and we may confirm that status to anyone who asks.

Suspension, reduction and withdrawal

We may suspend certification, reduce its scope, or withdraw it where:

• nonconformities are not resolved within the timescales given, or the same nonconformity recurs;
• a surveillance or recertification assessment cannot take place within the interval required by the scheme, for any reason attributable to the client;
• access to sites, records or personnel is refused or obstructed;
• the client has given information that is materially inaccurate, incomplete or misleading;
• a certification mark or a claim of certification has been misused;
• the client has failed to notify a change it was required to notify;
• invoices remain unpaid after written notice;
• the certified activity has ceased, or the scope is no longer valid; or
• anything else occurs that undermines confidence in the conformity of the certified management system.

How suspension works

We will write to the client stating the grounds, the action required and the period allowed to put matters right, and the client may make representations before the decision takes effect except where an immediate suspension is necessary. During suspension the certificate is invalid and the client must immediately stop all use of the certification marks and all claims of certification, and must inform any customer who has been given the certificate as evidence of conformity, if we require it.

If the grounds are resolved within the period allowed, certification is reinstated and the client is informed in writing. If they are not, we may withdraw certification or reduce its scope to exclude the parts that no longer conform. Withdrawal or reduction does not entitle the client to a refund of fees already paid or of fees committed for the remainder of the cycle, unless the certification agreement says otherwise. We may publish the fact that a certificate has been suspended, reduced or withdrawn. The client may appeal against any of these decisions under the appeals procedure below.

Use of certification marks and logos

On certification we grant the client a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the certification mark specified for the scheme, for the period of validity of the certificate and strictly within its scope. The licence ends automatically on expiry, suspension or withdrawal of certification, and on termination of the contract.

The client must:

• reproduce the mark only in the form and proportions we supply, without alteration to its colours, elements or wording;
• show, wherever a scheme requires it, the certificate number, the standard and the certified scope alongside the mark;
• make it unambiguous which legal entity, activities and sites are certified where a group of companies is involved; and
• correct any misuse promptly at its own cost when we ask it to, including withdrawing or reprinting the affected material.

The client must not:

• apply the mark to a product, to product packaging, or to anything a consumer sees that would imply the product itself is certified;
• apply the mark to a test, calibration or inspection report, or to a certificate of conformity for a product;
• imply that certification covers activities, products, services or sites outside the certified scope;
• imply that a certificate carries an accreditation, endorsement or recognition that it does not carry;
• use the mark, or make any claim of certification, after expiry, suspension or withdrawal; or
• use the mark or refer to its certification in any way that could bring us or the certification scheme into disrepute.

Where a certified statement is made in an advertisement, on a website, in a tender response or in any other public communication, it must be accurate and confined to the certified scope. Where misuse continues after we have asked for it to be corrected, we may suspend or withdraw certification, publish a correction, and take any other action available to us in law.

Confidentiality

We treat all information obtained about a client in the course of an application, assessment or certification as confidential, whether or not it is marked as such. We will not disclose it to any third party without the client's written consent, except where:

• disclosure is required by law, by a court, or by a regulator with authority to compel it;
• disclosure is required under the rules of the scheme, for example to a scheme owner or an oversight body exercising a right of review or witnessing an assessment;
• the information is already in the public domain other than through a breach of this clause, or was lawfully known to us before it was disclosed to us; or
• disclosure is to our own personnel, assessors, technical experts, subcontractors or professional advisers who need it and who are themselves bound by confidentiality obligations.

Where we are required by law to disclose information a client has given us, we will notify the client of the information disclosed unless we are prohibited from doing so. Certification status is not confidential: the existence, scope, standard and validity of a certificate may be confirmed to any enquirer, and the client agrees to this as a condition of certification.

The client must keep confidential any of our methodologies, checklists, templates, assessment plans and non-public documents disclosed to it. Personal data exchanged between us is handled in accordance with our privacy notice, and each party will comply with its obligations under UK data protection law.

Impartiality and conflicts of interest

Impartiality is the basis on which our certification decisions have any value. We therefore:

• base every decision solely on objective evidence obtained during assessment;
• identify, analyse and document threats to impartiality arising from our activities, our relationships and the relationships of our personnel — including self-interest, self-review, familiarity and intimidation threats — and either eliminate them or apply safeguards;
• do not offer, and will not accept, certification work on a management system on which we, or any body under our control, have provided consultancy;
• require a minimum period of two years to have elapsed before a member of personnel may take part in the assessment of an organisation to which they previously provided consultancy or by which they were employed;
• do not link the fee for an assessment, or the pay of any person involved, to the outcome of that assessment; and
• do not market or offer our services as linked to the services of any consultancy.

A client may object to the appointment of a member of the assessment team, stating its reasons in writing before the assessment. Where the objection is reasonable we will make an alternative appointment. If a client becomes aware of a relationship that could threaten our impartiality, it must tell us at once.

Complaints and appeals

Complaints

A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction with our services, our personnel or the conduct of an organisation we certify. Complaints should be made in writing using the contact details at the end of these terms. We will acknowledge a complaint within five working days, investigate it through people who were not involved in the matter complained about, and give a written outcome within thirty working days — or explain why more time is needed and when a decision can be expected.

Where a complaint concerns an organisation we certify, we will consider whether it raises a question about the conformity of that organisation's management system, refer it to the organisation where appropriate, and take it into account in the next assessment or, if the matter is serious, arrange a special assessment. We will tell the complainant the outcome so far as confidentiality obligations allow.

Appeals

An appeal is a request to reconsider a decision we have made — for example a refusal, suspension, withdrawal or reduction of certification, the grading of a nonconformity, or a determination of scope. An appeal must be made in writing within twenty working days of the client being notified of the decision, and must state the grounds.

Appeals are acknowledged within five working days and are decided by people who did not take, and were not involved in, the original decision. Submitting an appeal does not by itself suspend the effect of the decision unless we agree otherwise in writing. We aim to give a written decision within thirty working days. The decision at the final stage of our appeals procedure is final under the contract; this does not affect any right either party has in law, or the client's right to raise a matter with a scheme owner where the scheme provides for it.

No client, complainant or appellant will be subjected to any discriminatory action for raising a complaint or an appeal.

Intellectual property

All intellectual property rights in our assessment methodology, checklists, templates, report formats, certification marks, this website and its content, and in any report or certificate we produce, remain ours or our licensors'. On payment of our fees, the client is granted a non-exclusive licence to use assessment reports issued to it for its own internal purposes and to demonstrate certification to its customers and regulators.

All intellectual property rights in the documents, records and materials the client supplies remain the client's. The client grants us a licence to use, copy and retain them so far as necessary to carry out the assessment, to take and record a certification decision, and to keep the records these terms require.

Standards are the copyright of the bodies that publish them. We do not supply copies of standards, and the client is responsible for obtaining its own licensed copies of every standard and scheme document against which it wishes to be assessed.

Limitation of liability

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes either party's liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded.

Subject to that, we are not liable to the client, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty or otherwise, for any:

• loss of profit, revenue, business, contracts, production or anticipated savings;
• loss of or damage to goodwill or reputation;
• loss of, corruption of, or inability to use data; or
• indirect, special or consequential loss,

however arising, even if the loss was foreseeable or we had been advised of the possibility of it.

Subject to the paragraphs above, our total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with the contract is limited to the amount stated in the certification agreement or, where no amount is stated, to the total fees paid by the client under that contract in the twelve months immediately before the event giving rise to the claim.

We accept no liability to any third party who relies on a certificate, an assessment report or any statement of certification status. Certification is not a warranty of a client's products, services or legal compliance, and any person considering relying on a certificate should make their own enquiries.

Any claim must be notified to us in writing, with reasonable detail of its grounds, within twelve months of the date the client became aware, or ought reasonably to have become aware, of the circumstances giving rise to it.

Indemnity

The client shall indemnify us against all liabilities, costs, expenses, damages and losses (including reasonable legal costs) suffered or incurred by us arising out of or in connection with:

• any misuse of a certification mark, certificate or statement of certification by the client or anyone acting on its behalf;
• any misleading or unauthorised claim by the client about the fact, scope or status of its certification;
• any claim by a third party relating to the client's products, services or activities, including any claim founded on the existence of a certificate;
• any breach by the client of these terms or of the certification agreement;
• any injury to or death of our personnel, or damage to their property, arising from the condition of the client's premises or the acts or omissions of the client; and
• any claim that material supplied to us by the client infringes a third party's intellectual property rights.

Force majeure

Neither party is liable for any failure or delay in performing its obligations, other than an obligation to pay money already due, caused by an event beyond its reasonable control — including act of God, fire, flood, severe weather, epidemic or pandemic, war, terrorism, civil unrest, industrial action, failure of utilities or telecommunications, failure of transport networks, cyber attack, or the act or restriction of any government or public authority.

The affected party will notify the other as soon as practicable, and both parties will use reasonable endeavours to minimise the effect, including by rescheduling assessment activity or conducting it remotely where the scheme permits. Where a scheme allows it, we may extend an assessment interval or the validity of a certificate, or suspend certification, so as to keep the certificate meaningful. If the event continues for more than sixty days, either party may terminate the contract by written notice without liability, save for sums due for work already carried out.

Termination

Either party may terminate the contract on the notice period stated in the certification agreement. Either party may terminate immediately by written notice if the other commits a material breach that is capable of remedy and fails to remedy it within thirty days of being asked to, commits a material breach that cannot be remedied, or becomes insolvent, enters an insolvency procedure or ceases to carry on business.

We may also terminate immediately where we can no longer act impartially in relation to the client, where we cease to operate the scheme concerned, or where continuing would require us to act in breach of the rules of a scheme or of the law.

On termination for any reason:

• fees for work carried out, and for commitments reasonably incurred, up to the date of termination become payable;
• certification ends and the certificate is withdrawn, unless the certificate is transferred with our written agreement;
• the client must immediately cease all use of the certification marks and all claims of certification, and return or destroy certificates as we direct; and
• the sections on confidentiality, intellectual property, limitation of liability, indemnity, records retention and governing law continue in force.

General provisions

• Entire agreement — the certification agreement, the applicable scheme rules, our quotation and these terms are the entire agreement between the parties on their subject matter, and replace any earlier understanding. Nothing in this clause limits liability for fraudulent misrepresentation.
• Third party rights — a person who is not a party to the contract has no right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any of its terms.
• Assignment — the client may not assign, transfer or subcontract its rights or obligations without our written consent. We may subcontract assessment activity to competent assessors and technical experts who are bound by confidentiality and impartiality obligations, and we remain responsible for their work.
• Severance — if any provision is held to be invalid or unenforceable, it is to be treated as modified to the minimum extent necessary, or deleted if that is not possible, and the remaining provisions continue in force.
• Waiver — a failure or delay in enforcing a right is not a waiver of it, and no single or partial exercise prevents any further exercise.
• Notices — notices must be in writing and sent to the address or email address given in the certification agreement, or to the contact details at the end of these terms.
• No partnership or agency — nothing in these terms creates a partnership, joint venture or agency between the parties, and neither may bind the other.
• Website use — this website is provided for general information. Its content does not constitute advice, and we may change it at any time.

Governing law and jurisdiction

These terms, the contract, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter or formation — including any non-contractual dispute or claim — are governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales.

The parties irrevocably agree that the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any such dispute or claim. Before starting proceedings, the parties will use reasonable endeavours to resolve the matter through our complaints and appeals procedure, and will consider mediation; this does not prevent either party from seeking urgent interim relief.

Changes to these terms

We may amend these terms — for example to reflect a change in the law, in the rules of a scheme, or in the way we deliver our services. The version in force for a particular engagement is the version published on this website at the date of the quotation or certification agreement, unless we agree otherwise in writing.

Where a change materially affects an existing client, we will give at least thirty days' written notice before it takes effect. A client that does not accept a material change may terminate on written notice within that period. Continuing to hold certification, or instructing further work, after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of it. The effective date and last updated date at the top of this page show which version you are reading.

How to contact us

Questions about these terms, quotations, complaints and appeals should be addressed to:

UKCert
89 Brown Lane
Cheadle
Manchester SK8 3SF
United Kingdom
Email: info@britishhalalauthority.org.uk
Telephone: +44 7884 528599

How we handle the personal data referred to in these terms is explained in our privacy notice.