Formal recognition that a certification body is competent to carry out audits and issue certificates against a given standard.
Accreditation is the check on the checkers. A national accreditation body assesses a certification body against international rules to confirm it is impartial and competent. Only certificates issued by an accredited body carry full international recognition.
This distinction matters when buying or trusting a certificate: an accredited ISO/IEC 27001 certificate is far stronger evidence than an unaccredited claim of conformance.
Related frameworks
KaitoSec