Accreditation Questionnaire

These are key questions  to ask potential ISO 17025 Accreditation during your selection process. Selecting the right Accreditation Body is critical to a successful ISO 17025 accreditation.

Opening Questions for the Accreditation Representative

  • What accreditations do you have?
  • In which countries are you licensed?
  • Do you use the same lead auditor/auditors each time?
  • Where would the auditors of this project come from?
  • How many auditors would you use on this project?
  • Can we meet the auditors who would work on this project?
  • If we have questions and call in, can we talk to our auditor or do we talk to a different representative?
  • What relevant industry experience do you have?
  • How many and which similar companies have you accredited?
  • How many auditors do you have in our SIC code?

Technical Questions for the Accreditation Representative

  • How do you interpret the standard? Do we have access to your interpretation?
  • How do you handle pre-assessment audits? Do you recommend them? Are they mandatory?
  • Do you have a checklist we can use to assess our own system?
  • What method do you use to do a full system audit?
  • What is the frequency of surveillance audits?
  • What is covered at each surveillance?
  • Is there advance notice of surveillance?
  • Do you do a full system audit every three years?
  • How do you determine how much time to spend on a full system/surveillance audit?
  • Describe how you determine major and minor nonconformances.
  • In what area of the standard do you find the most nonconformances?
  • How do you handle a major nonconformance? How long do we have to respond?
  • Will you return to audit that section? If so, will you look at any other areas?
  • What experience do each of the auditors who are assigned to us have?
  • What method do you follow when there is a need to change auditors?
  • How do we contact the auditors?
  • Review bios of lead and other auditors, i.e. education, experience, companies audited, references.

Questions for the Auditor


  • How do you make yourself available to people in the plant who have questions during the audit?
  • What do you do when someone is too nervous to answer your questions?
  • How do you set boundaries so everyone’s time is used effectively?

  • Describe a situation where you had to convey a point to a hostile or unreceptive audience.
  • How do you make difficult decisions?
  • How do you handle the unexpected?
Conflict Management

  • Describe a conflict you handled well, and one you didn’t handle well.
  • Describe a time when you had to deliver bad news, and the receiver didn’t take it well.
Ethics and Values

  • Have you ever had to represent a position you didn’t completely agree with?
  • Have you ever had to give feedback that was more negative than the requester was expecting?
  • What did you do?
  • How do you handle confidential information a requester knows you have, but you can’t or won’t disclose?

  • Have you worked with union and non-union facilities?
  • What are the differences?
  • How many major projects have you managed at the same time?
  • How have you managed projects with team members from other offices/locations/practices?
  • How do you keep organized during an assessment/audit?
Written Communications

  • Please provide with written examples of observations and non-conformances.

Dowload the Registrar Questionnaire