ISO 9001 audit body fees in the UK in 2026
Every UKAS-accredited body issues the same standard, so the certificate carries the same procurement weight. Fees vary because of brand premium, day rate, and surveillance flexibility, not because of substance. The comparison below covers the five bodies most commonly seen in UK certifications.
Audit body fee bands, UK 2026 (50-person services firm reference)
| Body | Day rate (UK 2026) | Stage 1 + 2 | Surveillance / yr | Admin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
BSI British Standards Institution. Strongest brand weight for UK public-sector frameworks; surveillance flexibility average; UKAS accredited. | £1,400 to £1,600 | £5,500 to £8,500 | £1,800 to £2,800 | £500 to £900 |
LRQA Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance. Strong on multi-site international scope; engineering and energy heritage; UKAS accredited. | £1,250 to £1,500 | £4,800 to £7,800 | £1,500 to £2,500 | £400 to £700 |
SGS Global testing and certification. Strong on manufacturing and supply-chain audits; broad UK auditor pool; UKAS accredited. | £1,200 to £1,500 | £4,500 to £7,500 | £1,400 to £2,400 | £350 to £650 |
NQA National Quality Assurance. SME-friendly day rate; widely used by UK consultancies as the body of choice for cost-led clients; UKAS accredited. | £1,100 to £1,350 | £3,800 to £6,200 | £1,200 to £1,900 | £250 to £500 |
Amtivo Combined certification body following several UK acquisitions (Citation ISO Certification, QMS International). Aggressively priced for SMEs; UKAS accredited. | £1,000 to £1,300 | £3,200 to £5,800 | £1,000 to £1,700 | £200 to £450 |
How to read these numbers
Day rate
The visible number. A £150 / day spread across 5 audit days is £750 of swing. Material at SME scale.
Day count
IAF / UKAS guidance keys day count off effective headcount and scope complexity. Bodies cannot freely flex this; the real swing comes from how scope is defined.
Surveillance flexibility
Remote-friendly bodies and those with broad calendar availability save days you do not see at quote time. Worth asking about explicitly.
UKAS-accredited vs non-UKAS-accredited certificates
UKAS-accredited
- Universally accepted on UK public-sector tenders.
- Recognised by Tier 1 main contractors and supply-chain qualification programmes.
- Day rate £1,000 to £1,600 in 2026.
- All five bodies in the table above are UKAS-accredited for ISO 9001.
Non-UKAS
- Often 30 to 50 percent cheaper at certification stage.
- Increasingly rejected on UK public-sector tenders.
- Sometimes accepted for internal supply-chain qualification, but rarely for first-tier roles.
- If the certificate is procurement infrastructure, the saving is typically false economy.
Which UKAS body for which situation
| Situation | Typical fit | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| SME on a tight budget | NQA or Amtivo | Lowest realistic day rate among UKAS-accredited bodies; SME-friendly Stage 1 + 2 fee envelopes; surveillance fees comparable. |
| Public-sector framework qualification (Crown Commercial, NHS SBS) | BSI | Brand weight in procurement evaluations is real. Rare to see a tender preferring BSI explicitly, but evaluators often recognise it as a stronger signal at the margin. |
| Multi-site or international scope | LRQA or SGS | Global auditor networks reduce travel and scheduling friction across jurisdictions. Both handle multi-site sampling cleanly. |
| Manufacturer with calibration scope | SGS, LRQA, or NQA | Auditor pool experience with calibration evidence and supplier qualification matters more than day rate. SGS is particularly strong here. |
| Construction contractor with active project sites | NQA, SGS, or Amtivo | Site-sampling logistics and surveillance flexibility matter; budget-aware contractors typically choose NQA or Amtivo. SGS is the premium option for larger contractors. |
When the same body covers multiple standards
Manufacturers running an ISO 27001 programme alongside their quality system can typically share around 30 to 40 percent of audit days when the same certification body covers both standards. The cost-side breakdown is on iso27001certificationcost.com. The shared-day saving largely disappears across different bodies, which is the most common reason multi-standard quotes vary so widely in the market.