HKCAS Supplementary Criteria No. 11: HKAS Policy on Product and Management System Certification Schemes (HKCAS SC-11)

HKCAS Supplementary Criteria No. 11 (HKCAS SC-11) is an essential normative policy document published by the Hong Kong Accreditation Service (HKAS) under the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) of the HKSAR Government. Functioning within the Hong Kong Certification Body Accreditation Scheme (HKCAS), this technical document specifies mandatory requirements and evaluation principles for product and management system certification schemes accepted for HKAS accreditation. Designed in conformity with international accreditation standards—including ISO/IEC 17065 (product, process, and service certification) and ISO/IEC 17021 (management systems certification)—HKCAS SC-11 defines criteria for scheme ownership, stakeholder consultation, scheme governance, and technical validity. It establishes guidelines for validating scheme rules, audit/assessment methodologies, sampling protocols, and certified mark usage. The criteria ensure that certification schemes operated by accredited certification bodies in Hong Kong maintain international equivalence, transparency, and technical rigor under multilateral recognition arrangements (such as IAF MLA). Serving as a key open educational resource, this policy document provides critical regulatory context, scheme design principles, and conformity assessment criteria for undergraduate and postgraduate students, certification auditors, quality managers, and industrial compliance specialists studying conformity assessment systems, ISO standards, and quality infrastructure.