Accreditation
This is the process by which a certification body can have its processes assessed to see if they meet the Regulatory Authority's (or Accreditation Body's) standard for certification. In the UK this body is UKAS, the UK Accreditation Service, backed by the DTI. These schemes, like certification, are backed by regular audits of the Certification Body's procedures, practices and operations, and a check on the competence of that body's auditors. If the body fails to meet the required standard their accreditation can be removed.

Registration
To obtain an accredited certificate, the Auditor that carries out the assessment needs to be of recognised competence. The IQA offer an internationally recognised scheme of auditor registration, known as IRCA, the International Register of Certificated Auditors. My registration number, for example, is A005921. Registered auditors have to meet initial competence requirements and have their competence reassessed every three years. All the accredited Certification bodies will only use auditors who are on this register. Unaccredited bodies are free to use anyone, so the customer has no guarantee that their auditor's competence has ever been checked.

Unaccredited Certification
There are many unscrupulous companies who will offer a cheap approval to ISO 9001 in an unfeasibly short time. These are invariably unaccredited certifications and are cheap because they require only the ability to generate a piece of paper bearing an impressive sounding logo, and are worth about as much. Some of these companies will offer a ready made set of quality procedures for you to buy. These procedures are unlikely to be of any value to your company because they are unlikely to take into account your particular circumstances. An unaccredited certificate is not going to be acceptable to any of the key major purchasers who generally set requirements for their suppliers to have the standard. In fact any procurer who knows the difference is unlikely to accept an unaccredited certificate.

Although it is not illegal to offer unaccredited certificates to companies, Most quality professionals regard these services as tantamount to fraudulent in they attempt to mislead a potential customer into thinking that the certified company has reached a recognized industry standard in Quality Management when in fact they have only had to satisfy the company offering the certificate, which they can generally do by paying that company's fee.

Beware of any company promising to deliver you a certificate to ISO 9001 in a very short time and for very little money. These are likely to be unaccredited services.