Recertifying to ISO 9001:2015 this year? What to do about 2026

When ISO 9001:2026 was launched on 16 September 2026 [CONFIRM: publication date], ISO streamed the launch on YouTube. Transition timing was the most common subject in the comments, and one question summed it up: an organisation certified to ISO 9001:2015, due for recertification the following week, asked when it should move to 2026.

If you are in the same position, you do not need to change your plans. This article explains why, and what I would do with the time you have.

Your certificate stays valid

The publication of a new edition does not invalidate your certificate. Nobody is going to arrive on Monday to audit you against a standard you have not yet read.

Organisations certified to ISO 9001:2015 have a three-year transition period, ending in September 2029 [CONFIRM: Paul's wording for the three-year transition period set by an IAF resolution]. Your certificate remains valid through that period, and you move across to the 2026 edition at a normal surveillance or recertification audit inside it.

Your certification body sets the practical timing

A certification body needs accreditation to the new edition before it can certify anyone to it. Until your certification body holds that accreditation, your audits continue against ISO 9001:2015. ISO's own advice to organisations asking about timing is to discuss it with their certification body, and I agree.

I would ask your certification body four questions at your next audit, or before it:

• When do you expect to be accredited to ISO 9001:2026?
• What transition arrangements will you apply during the transition period?
• At which of our audits do you expect the transition to take place?
• If we are a new organisation seeking certification for the first time, which edition can you certify us to on our planned audit date?

The last question came up in the launch comments as well. The answer depends on your certification body's accreditation and your audit date, so ask them directly rather than relying on general advice.

Your existing programmes carry on

Another question from the launch comments asked what to do with existing corrective actions, internal audit programmes and management review programmes during the transition.

The shape of the standard has not changed. Your process map, your quality objectives, your internal audit programme and your corrective action process all still stand. Carry on running them as they are, and add the new requirements to them over the transition period. You do not need to start any of them again.

What I would do this year

I have watched three of these transitions now [CONFIRM: the "three transitions" line]. In my experience, the organisations that struggled left the work until the last audit of the last year and then tried to do it alongside everything else.

If you recertify to 2015 this year, your transition will most likely fall at one of the surveillance audits that follow, so there is time to prepare properly if you start early. I would use that time in this order.

This month, read the changes. Buy a copy of the new edition from ISO and read it against what you run now. Four changes will alter what your auditor asks to see: top management promoting a culture of quality and ethical behaviour, risks and opportunities separated with requirements for each, a requirement to determine whether climate change is relevant to your management system, and a structure aligned with the other ISO management system standards with a rewritten guidance annex.

Next, decide what applies to you. Some of this will take an afternoon. Climate change, for example, can start as one line on the agenda of your next management review: is climate change a relevant issue for us? Record the discussion and the answer. Deciding that it is not relevant is a legitimate outcome, provided you can show you asked the question.

Then put it into next year's internal audit programme. Plan internal audits that cover the new requirements next year rather than the year after. Two checks are worth including. First, open your risk register and look for evidence of opportunities you identified and either acted on or consciously declined, with a reason. Most registers I have audited since 2015 contained risks and almost no opportunities. Second, ask a few people on the shop floor what happens when they stop the line because something does not look right. Their answers will tell you more about your quality culture than any policy.

By the time your certification body is ready to audit you against 2026, your own internal audits will already have covered the new requirements, and the transition audit becomes a review of work you have done.

Ignore the pressure to rush

Some of the commentary around the launch suggests that every organisation needs a new management system. ISO 9001:2026 is a revision of a standard you already run. If somebody tries to sell you a full system rewrite on the back of it, ask them which clause requires it.

If you are recertifying to ISO 9001:2015 this year, you have time to do this properly. The ISO 9001:2015 to ISO 9001:2026 Key Changes course takes you through each change, so you can plan the work at your own pace and have it finished well before your transition audit.