Assurance certificates

Where a standard has a Certificate, this means it has been evaluated as being fit for use, as specified in the assured and published documents.

Assurance Certificates were introduced in 2016 to provide a simple mechanism that the standard-owning organisation can use as evidence of quality and purpose. As well as the Certificate, the owning organisation is provided with an Assurance Mark, and associated guidance, to support communications activity promoting the standard. Please note that neither the Certificate nor DCB Assurance Mark implies assurance of the owning organisation; they provide a statement of assurance specific to a standard.

See below for a list of all current Assurance Certificates issued by

• the Data Coordination Board (DCB) (from April 2017)
• the Standardisation Committee for Care Information (SCCI) (between April 2016 and March 2017). 

This list allows you to see whether:

• an information standard or collection has been through an assurance process
• the assurance certificate is still current, providing an indication of your requirement to:
  • implement an information standard
  • participate in a collection.

Each item on the list contains a link to the issued Assurance Certificate and further information for the item.

Note that items which are shown as 'Standards' or 'Standards and Collections' also have an Information Standards Notice (ISN) which can be viewed via the 'Information' link for each item.  

It is important to note that from April 2016:

• Assurance Certificates have been issued for all items successfully assured and approved (by DCB) or accepted (by SCCI)
• Information Standards Notices for collections are no longer published.

For a complete list of all current standards and collections,review our A-Z list.

If you have any queries about Assurance Certificates or Assurance Marks please contact us at standards.assurance@nhs.net