Certificate Technical Re-issue: A Technical Re-issue is usually recommended when a substantial change of the certificate is required following additional technical assessment. For example, if a new product is added to the scope of the Certificate. If a technical re-issue is deemed necessary, this is a compulsory change that has to be made, in order to continue the validity of a certificate.

Certificate Non-Technical Re-issue: A Non-Technical Re-issue relates to changes of a non-technical changes, that are still required for the validity of the Certificate to continue. For example, updates to the titles of Standards or Regulations, but not changes to the technical content of the documents.

Certificate Amendment: Amendments are permissible for very basic changes for non-technical, such as a change of address of the certificate holder, where no other more significance amendments are required for the Certificate.

Review Reissue contact: This is a contract between the BBA and an existing Certificate holder covering both the Review of their Certificate, but also a non-technical Reissue at the end of the Review process. It is important to note that, should the Review identify additional changes of a technical nature, this will require an additional contract and cost to assess and amend the Certificate accordingly.

Certificate Suspension: Suspension is usually applied where a serious issue is identified where it is identified that the Certificate no longer accurately describes the product. It may also be appropriate in their circumstances, for example when the site of production is being changed Suspension means that the existing certificate is paused (rendering it invalid during this time) and removed from the website while the issues raised are dealt with, after which it could resume and the product could then be sold once again as a BBA-certified product. However, we encourage our clients, should they know that major changes are due to occur, let us know in advance, so that our assessors can review the changes and work with you to deal with any issues raised, avoiding the least amount of certificate down-time or disruption.

Certificate Withdrawal: A certificate withdrawal usually relates to a product no longer conforming to the original criteria it was certified against. It may be that the product itself has been withdrawn, or that processes of production or materials have changed significantly, which means that the certificate is no longer valid against the original certification scheme. When this happens, the certificate is removed from our website and is no longer searchable. When withdrawals happen, that means that the certificate is closed, and cannot be re-opened. If the product needs to be re-certified, the process is started as a new project, under a new certificate.

Certificate Reproduction: In the case where a product is white-labelled for distribution, the BBA offers a solution that means the distributor can also apply for their own BBA certificate for use in their own distribution marketing activity; but only if the original manufacturer of the product has an active certificate for the same product. The BBA Agrément Certificate relates to a specific product, and a specific organisation, certifying that particular product against a specific set of criteria for a particular use. Each Certificate is unique to the organisation that has requested the certification and testing to be conducted – the output of which is an individual document that complies only to that specific organisation, thus allowing that business to make use of the BBA Certification logo on their products and marketing material. When a manufacturer white-labels a product, and makes it available for re-branding and resale by another business, although the product itself might be identical, the new business that is re-branding the product, does not have authority to apply the same certificate within their promotional material, as the certificate does not correlate to their business. That’s when we are able to issue a Reproduction Certificate for the distributor to use which means that the distributor has an added benefit to verifying the credibility of the product they’re selling, and the manufacturer that their product complies to the same stringent set of criteria – increasing the value of their market share through their distribution network. In the case of Reproduction Certificates, for the distributor, maintenance usually means 1 visit per year to the business’ office in order to assess and check the supply chain, and to confirm that the product they’re distributing is still the same product as the originally-certified product, but is simply being relabeled. The process for the manufacturer of that product will be consistent with our standard maintenance schedule of surveillance and 3-year Reviews.

Understand the difference between Surveillance and Reviews:

View our Frequently Asked Questions around Certificate maintenance: