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Standards and certification
Yes: if you certify, accredit, register or approve other businesses, products or people, you need professional indemnity insurance. When the certified installer, product or system fails, the loss often falls on someone who never dealt with you but relied on your badge. PI answers that allegation and disputes over your decisions; the board, libel and data risks usually need D&O, a defamation extension and cyber alongside it.
Part of: PI for professional bodies and trade associations
In short
Certification bodies, competent person and approved-installer schemes, and trade bodies that badge members all sell a judgement others rely on. UKAS is the UK national accreditation body, appointed under the Accreditation Regulations 2009, and accredits certifiers against standards including ISO/IEC 17065 (products), ISO/IEC 17021-1 (management systems) and ISO/IEC 17024 (persons). Claims allege a negligent audit, assessment or decision, and can come from members, from their customers or from anyone who relied on the mark. Check your PI wording names certification as professional business.
Last reviewed 6 October 2026 by the Apex professional indemnity team.
A certifier rarely builds or sells anything. It produces a decision: this firm, product, system or person meets the requirements. That decision goes out on a certificate, a register entry or a logo on the member’s van and quotations, and other people act on it.
Public liability covers accidental injury and property damage, such as an assessor damaging a floor during a site visit. It does not usually respond when your judgement was wrong and someone lost money. That is professional indemnity (PI), subject to the policy terms.
What makes certifiers unusual is who sues. Most professionals are sued by their own clients. A certifier can be sued by:
The wider picture for professional bodies, including guidance and discipline, is in our guide to PI for professional bodies and trade associations. This page covers only the certifying function.
The examples below are illustrative. They show the kinds of allegation certifiers face; they are not real claims or outcomes.
UKAS describes accreditation as “independent third-party recognition that an organisation has the competence and impartiality to perform specific technical activities such as certification, testing and inspection”, and certification as “the third-party confirmation via audit of an organisation’s systems or products”. In its own words, UKAS checks the checkers. A trade body that vets and badges members is doing certification in substance, accredited or not.
| Framework | What it says | Why it matters to your PI |
|---|---|---|
| The Accreditation Regulations 2009 (SI 2009/3155) | Regulation 3 appoints UKAS as the UK national accreditation body. In force since 1 January 2010. | Accreditation is evidence of a competent, impartial process. It is not insurance. |
| ISO/IEC 17065:2012 | Requirements for bodies certifying products, processes and services. ISO lists the 2012 edition as current and under revision. | Product and installer schemes are judged on how you evaluate, decide and run surveillance. |
| ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015 | Principles and requirements for the competence, consistency and impartiality of bodies auditing and certifying management systems. | Missed-nonconformity claims are argued against your audit programme and auditor competence. |
| ISO/IEC 17024:2026 | General requirements for bodies certifying persons, published 31 March 2026 and replacing the 2012 edition. | Claims come from refused candidates and from employers who relied on a certificate. |
| Competent person schemes | Installers in a scheme self-certify certain building work instead of getting building regulations approval. MHCLG authorises the schemes. | The April 2016 conditions of authorisation require UKAS accreditation to ISO/IEC 17065, sanctions with an appeal route, a published register and a complaints process. |
| UK Construction Products Regulation, article 43(9) | “An approved body must have adequate liability insurance in respect of its activities.” | One of the few places where the law itself requires a certifier to insure. |
The ISO/IEC standards are paid documents, so we do not summarise what they say about liability arrangements. Ask your assessor or scheme owner what evidence of cover they expect.
Whether your policy works depends less on the limit than on whether the wording recognises that you judge other people’s work.
If your schedule says “trade association” and nothing about assessing, auditing, testing, certifying or approving others, an insurer may argue a certification claim falls outside it. Name each activity, scheme by scheme.
A member’s customer has no contract with you; their claim is in negligence, resting on reliance on your mark. Look for exclusions on claims by members or a scheme owner, and for wording limiting cover to claims by your own clients.
Some schemes promise consumers that faulty work will be put right whatever the cause. For competent person schemes, the conditions of authorisation require the operator to ensure consumers have financial protection to put non-compliant work to dwellings right for at least six years from completion, through guarantees, insurance-backed warranties or, where appropriate, professional indemnity insurance. PI wordings commonly exclude liability taken on under a guarantee beyond what you would owe anyway, so any consumer promise needs its own funding.
A product liability exclusion aimed at manufacturers can catch a product certifier. Ask for wording confirming it does not apply to your certification of someone else’s product.
In most badge claims the member did the bad work and you are the second target, often because it is insolvent. Underwriters check that your mark licence says plainly what the mark promises.
Refusing, suspending, withdrawing and publishing each create a different allegation, and not all belong to the same policy.
The best defence is a documented process: written criteria, a decision record, a chance to respond, an independent appeal and factual notices. Many PI wordings include unintentional defamation; check that it extends to register entries, removal notices and public statements, not only reports to clients.
| Usually covered by PI | Often excluded or limited | Needs a different policy |
|---|---|---|
| Negligent audit, assessment, testing or certification decisions | Activities missing from the schedule, such as a new scheme or an overseas programme | Claims against directors or trustees for governance decisions (D&O or management liability) |
| Claims from people who relied on a certificate or mark, subject to the wording | Liability under guarantees, warranties or promises to put work right | Notification, forensic and restoration costs after a data breach (cyber) |
| Members’ claims over negligent handling of an application, surveillance visit or appeal | Fines, penalties and regulatory sanctions | Injury to your staff and assessors (employers’ liability) |
| Unintentional defamation in published decisions, where included | Product liability exclusions drafted for manufacturers | Accidental injury or damage during site visits and audits (public liability) |
| Defence costs, including expert evidence on what the standard required | Claims or circumstances you knew about before the policy started | Theft of fees or funds by an employee (crime or fidelity) |
| Replacing lost or damaged assessment records, where included | Duties beyond reasonable skill and care accepted in contracts or licences | Disputes with your own employees (employment practices, often within management liability) |
Cover is always subject to the policy terms. For member data, see cyber insurance explained.
Your limit is usually set by someone else first: a scheme owner, government scheme conditions, a contract, or a licence to run another organisation’s mark. Read each requirement for three things: the amount, whether it is each and every claim or in the aggregate, and how long cover must continue after the arrangement ends. Our guide to aggregate and each-and-every-claim limits explains why the basis matters.
Then test it against your own book: what could the worst single member or product failure cost those who relied on it, and how many certificates could one mistake touch? A flawed test method can produce many claims at once, so check how related claims share a limit.
PI is written on a claims-made basis: the policy in force when the claim is made pays, not the one in force when you issued the certificate. Keep your retroactive date unbroken when you move insurer. With no prior PI, ask whether earlier certificates can be covered. If you close a scheme, merge or hand it to another operator, the certificates already issued stay in circulation; arrange run-off cover and agree in writing who answers for past decisions.
A common enquiry reads something like: “We vet members and let them display our mark. What cover do we need, and in what limits?” The answer usually combines PI, D&O, cyber and employers’ and public liability. Your brief should cover:
Apex arranges PI for certifying and accrediting bodies and works with over 30 markets, including Lloyd’s syndicates through wholesale brokers.
A complete proposal gets better terms than a bare one, and a broker can only present what you tell us. Have these ready:
Speak to a broker
PI for certification and accreditation bodies, placed by a named broker
Start the online proposal and save it as you go, or leave your number and a named broker will call you back, usually the same working day.
Apex Insurance Brokers is an independent insurance broker based in Bristol, established in 2009 and authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We are not tied to one insurer: we work with over 30 markets, including Lloyd’s syndicates through wholesale brokers, and every client has a named broker who handles the placement, mid-term changes, certificates for clients and the renewal.
Yes. Your core activity is a judgement that others rely on: that a product, management system, installer or person meets a standard. When it proves wrong, members and their customers can claim. PI responds to allegations of negligence in auditing, assessing and certifying, including defence costs, subject to the policy terms.
There is no single law covering every certifier, but some roles carry a legal duty. Under article 43(9) of the UK Construction Products Regulation, an approved body “must have adequate liability insurance in respect of its activities”. Elsewhere the requirement usually comes from scheme owners, contracts and government scheme conditions, so check your own scheme rules and agreements.
Often, yes, if the claim alleges negligence in your vetting, certification or surveillance and that activity is described in your policy. Check for exclusions on claims under guarantees or warranties and for wording that limits cover to claims by your own clients. The member’s faulty work is a matter for the member and its insurers first.
PI may respond where the member alleges you handled the process negligently, subject to the wording. Claims aimed at the board’s decisions or governance may need D&O or management liability instead, which is why many certifying bodies hold both.
Many PI wordings include unintentional defamation, but check it extends to register entries, removal notices and public statements, not only reports to clients. In England and Wales a statement is not defamatory unless it causes, or is likely to cause, serious harm to reputation; for a profit-making firm that means serious financial loss.
Certificates and marks already issued stay in circulation, and claims can arrive years later. Because PI is claims-made, you need a policy in force when the claim is made. Arrange run-off before the scheme closes, merges or moves to another operator.
Apex arranges professional indemnity insurance for certification and accreditation bodies across the UK. Tell us about your work and we’ll find cover that fits. Or call 0117 325 0027.
Start your PI proposal Call 0117 325 0027Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England and Wales, company number 07014570. This page is general information, not advice on your individual circumstances. Cover is always subject to the insurer’s acceptance and the policy terms, and this page does not guarantee that cover will be available or on what terms.
