The key areas covered include:
- the governance structure and required communication between all parties
- the core processes of The Information Standard
- the obligations of all participants in the scheme
The scheme rules will be enforced by a number of means, including:
- terms and conditions agreed by the certification bodies as a requirement of registration as an accredited certification body which is managed by UKAS as part of their assessment process
- terms and conditions agreed by the information producers regarding the use of the quality mark
- communications issued following certification
- performance monitoring of the certification bodies
- exception handling, where reports of poor performance or misuse of the brand are reported and investigated
- The rules will be issued to certified organisations as part of their welcome pack.
The rules will be reviewed annually and amended where appropriate.
How does it work?
The Department of Health is the owner of The Information Standard but has licensed the scheme to an independent scheme operator (Capita).
There are currently five Certification Bodies authorised to carry out the actual assessment of information producers and offer certification against the standard. These Certification Bodies are specialists in carrying out such evaluations against standards and will be accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) to confirm that they are competent to provide a certification service against the standard.
Following certification, you will be entitled to use The Information Standard quality mark, as an indication of the quality and reliability of your information.
To view the certification process please click on the relevant link in related documents on the right of this page.