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Written question asked by Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour) on Monday, 16 June 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 26 June 2003. It was answered by Patricia Hewitt (Labour) on Thursday, 26 June 2003 on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry.


Dept of Trade and Industry

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, what assessment her Department has made of the number of companies in the UK which are ISO 9000 certified; how many are certified by UKAS accredited companies in the UK; what reports the Government has received that some have been certified inappropriately; and what percentage her Department estimates have been certified inappropriately. - Including figures.
Answer

Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment her Department has made of the number of companies in the UK which are ISO 9000 certified; how many are certified by UKAS accredited companies in the UK; what reports the Government have received that some have been certified inappropriately; and what percentage her Department estimates have been certified inappropriately. [120288] Ms Hewitt: My Department does not collect information on businesses certified to ISO 9000. However, figures produced by the International Standards Organisation indicate that in, December 2001, there were 66,760 ISO 9000 certifications in the UK. Neither my Department nor UKAS collect information on the number of UK businesses certified to ISO 9000 by UKAS accredited companies. My Department is made aware from time to time of certifications which might be deemed inappropriate for various reasons (for example because the certifier is unaccredited and the certificate is not accepted in the market as a result) but keeps no record of the precise numbers of such cases.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
120288; 407 c925W;407 c926W
Session
2002-03
Subjects
Companies Quality control Standards International Organization for Standardization
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk