ISO 9001 audit body fees in the UK in 2026
Every UKAS-accredited body certifies against the same standard, so the certificate carries the same procurement weight. No UKAS-accredited body publishes an ISO 9001 fee schedule: BSI, LRQA, SGS, NQA and Amtivo all price by individual quote, keyed to your headcount, sites and scope. So this page does not print a price per body. It sets out the day-rate tiers this site's calculator uses, and what to ask so quotes can be compared like for like.
Day-rate planning model, UK 2026 (not quoted prices)
| Tier | Day rate | Admin |
|---|---|---|
| Lower day-rate quote | £1,000 to £1,300 | £200 to £450 |
| Mid-range quote | £1,200 to £1,500 | £350 to £700 |
| Higher day-rate quote | £1,400 to £1,600 | £500 to £900 |
The five bodies most often seen in UK certifications
BSI
British Standards Institution, the UK national standards body. Widely recognised name in UK public-sector procurement; UKAS accredited.
LRQA
Formerly Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance. Engineering and energy heritage, international auditor network; UKAS accredited.
SGS
Global testing, inspection and certification group. Manufacturing and supply-chain heritage; UKAS accredited.
NQA
National Quality Assurance. UK-headquartered certification body; UKAS accredited.
Amtivo
Multinational certification group; UK ISO 9001 certificates are issued through its UKAS-accredited body British Assessment Bureau.
How to read these numbers
Day rate
The visible number, and the one to compare first. Multiply any spread between two quotes by your audit days to see the swing.
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.
- Priced by quote; this site's model uses £1,000 to £1,600 a day.
- All five bodies in the table above are UKAS-accredited for ISO 9001.
Non-UKAS
- Often 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 | Quotes from three bodies | Day rates vary by body and by deal, and none is published. Three formal quotes against the same written scope is the only reliable way to find the lowest UKAS-accredited price. |
| Public-sector framework qualification (Crown Commercial, NHS SBS) | Any UKAS-accredited body | Tenders typically ask for UKAS-accredited certification, not a named body. Some buyers recognise BSI's name more readily, but that is a judgement call, not a tender rule. |
| Multi-site or international scope | LRQA, SGS or BSI | Global auditor networks reduce travel and scheduling friction across jurisdictions. Ask how multi-site sampling will be applied before comparing totals. |
| Manufacturer with calibration scope | Ask about sector auditors | Auditor experience with calibration evidence and supplier qualification matters more than day rate. Ask each body which auditors it would assign and their sector codes. |
| Construction contractor with active project sites | Ask about site sampling | Site-sampling logistics and surveillance flexibility drive the cost more than the headline rate. Ask how many project sites each body expects to visit per audit. |
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.