The Accreditation Auditing Practices Group (AAPG) is an informal group of accreditation experts, auditors and practitioners, drawn from the Commonwealth of Nations Accreditation Board (CNAB), the ISO Policy Committee for Conformity Assessment (ISO/CASCO) and the ISO Technical Committee 176 Quality Management and Quality Assurance (ISO/TC 176). It was established following the success of the ISO 9001 Auditing Practices Group (APG), and following a request from the CNAB's Technical Committee.

The AAPG has prepared a number of papers and presentations on accreditation auditing practices, against the International Standards and Guides produced by ISO/CASCO which are freely available and can be downloaded from the following website link -

Accreditation Auditing Practices Group

The website is primarily aimed at accreditation bodies and their auditors, as well as certification/registration bodies and their auditors.

The ideas, examples and explanations given reflect the process-based approach that is essential for the accreditation of Certification/Registration Bodies (CRBs) that are themselves applying such an approach in the certification of organizations to ISO 9001:2000 Quality management systems - Requirements. The papers and presentations that make up the content of this website are not definitive. They reflect a number of different views in accreditation auditing. As such, their content may not always be consistent. It is not intended that the website's content will be used as specified requirements, an industry benchmark, or as criteria that all accreditation bodies, accreditation auditors, or practitioners have to follow.

The items listed under "Accreditation auditing topics" below cover the papers and presentations available at the AAPG website.

Feedback from users as to whether additional guidance documents should be developed, or if these current ones should be revised is welcomed by the AAPG. Comments on the papers or presentations can be sent to the following email address: charles.corrie@bsi-global.com.

A further web page has been established to provide guidance to QMS auditors - see the ISO 9001 Auditing Practices Group.

Accreditation Auditing Topics

Introduction to the Accreditation Auditing Practices Group

The witnessing of CRB audits by an accreditation body

"Process Approach" based accreditation audits

Auditing the competence of Quality Management System CRB auditors and audit teams

Auditor Code of Conduct and Ethics