Governance
The Age Check Certification Scheme delivers world class certification services to age check providers and age restricted goods, content and services industries.
Our certification processes are robust and impartial; ensuring the trust and confidence of consumers, industry, government and stakeholders. Our processes and systems are set up in accordance with ISO 17065:2012 and we operate in accordance with the scheme regulations for our certification mark set out by the UK Intellectual Property Office:
- Our governance is anchored through our Board to deliver impartial, competent and consistent certification decisions.
- Our Board is supported by our highly professional assessment and evaluation team, both through our employees and our network of specialist assessors and auditors.
Impartiality
We are committed to ensuring that our certification decisions are impartial. We publish our Impartiality and Independence Policy Statement.
Competency
We invest in our people to make them the very best at what they do. We believe in continuous personal and professional development of both our staff and our contractors. We publish information about how our people are assessed for competence in our Competency Information.
Consistency
We operate quality control measures to guarantee a consistency of approach. We have a three-stage complaints and appeals process with clear routes for applicants and others to challenge decisions. Our General Scheme Rules are publicly available and the Standards that we apply are available through our Standards Information Page.
Financial support
ACCS is financially supported primarily through fees charged for its certification services. Each certification scheme operated by ACCS has a defined fee structure, with scheme-specific fee calculators available to provide transparency on applicable charges. In addition, ACCS generates income through the delivery of events and training activities, as well as through the sale of publications and other items via the ACCS online shop.
This is a link to the ISO/IEC 27566-1 Audit Effort Calculator:
ISO/IEC 27566-1 Audit Effort Calculator | ACCS | Age Check Certification Scheme
The Impartiality Panel
The Age Check Certification Scheme has established an Impartiality Panel to provide independent review and oversight of quality management certification activities. The role of this Panel is to review our certification activities and verify that they are performed impartially without undue influences that might affect the impartiality of services offered.
The main responsibilities of the Impartiality Panel are:
- To assist with the development of policies relating to the impartiality of our certification services,
- To periodically review the impartiality of our certification processes.
- To advise on matters affecting confidence in certification, including openness and public perception,
- To prevent commercial or other considerations from affecting the objective provision of certification services, and
- To ensure that the actions of the panel itself do not present any risks to impartiality.
​Impartiality Risk Register
The Age Check Certification Scheme has developed an Impartiality Risk Register, in line with the principles of ISO/IEC 17065, to ensure that all potential risks to impartiality are recorded and mitigated. We have done this by creating a detailed set of Impartiality Risk Registers which themselves are subject to review and audit by the Impartiality Panel.
Let's get in touch
We’ve worked with customers all over the world in a wealth of sectors, bringing our expertise to retailers, age check providers, gambling companies, entertainment providers and more. Find out how we can help your company safeguard young people and stay compliant.
Our mission is to protect children from the harm associated with access to age-restricted products, content and services.