When multiple offices of a certification body are involved, what must be ensured?

ISO/IEC 17021-1 requires a certification body to have a legally enforceable agreement with its client for the provision of certification activities. When multiple offices of a certification body are involved in auditing a client (especially a client with multiple sites), a single, comprehensive agreement is necessary. This agreement must cover all sites within the certification scope to ensure consistency, clear allocation of responsibilities, and legal enforceability across the entire scope of the certification, regardless of which office performs the work.

A. Separate agreements for each office would be administratively burdensome and could lead to inconsistent terms, undermining the integrity of the single certification.
C. An agreement with only the main office would leave activities performed by other offices and at other client sites outside a clear contractual framework, violating the standard.

1. ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015, Conformity assessment — Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems — Part 1: Requirements, Clause 5.1.2. This section mandates a legally enforceable agreement for the provision of certification activities, which by extension must cover the full scope.

2. ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015, Clause 9.1.4, "Auditing and certification of multiple sites." This clause treats the multi-site organization as a single client, which logically supports the need for a single, overarching legal agreement.