Governance
Use of marks
Certified organisations may display the Securo Cert mark. The conditions exist because a mark that anyone can display, in any context, tells a reader nothing.
Conditions
Only while the entry is active
Display ends the day certification is suspended, withdrawn or expires. The embed below enforces this automatically; a static image does not.
Always with the certificate number
A mark without a number cannot be checked, which makes it decoration. The number must be legible wherever the mark appears.
Never on a product
Management system certification covers an organisation and a scope, not an item. Placing the mark on packaging, hardware or a software build implies product certification and is prohibited.
Never beyond the scope
If the certificate covers one business unit, the mark may not be used to imply the whole group. This is the most common misuse and the most common cause of suspension.
Unaltered
No recolouring, stretching, rotation, added effects, or recombination with other marks into a composite device.
No accreditation marks
Accreditation body marks may only be used under the separate terms of that accreditation, and never where the certification decision was rendered by a partner body.
Live mark embed
The recommended way to display the mark is the embed snippet, which queries the register and removes itself if the entry is no longer active. It means a lapsed certificate cannot keep advertising itself from a cached image on your website, which protects your customers and protects the value of everyone else’s certificate.
Generate the snippet from your certificate’s register entry. It is a single script tag with your certificate number, and it renders nothing at all if the status is anything other than active.
Misuse
Misuse is grounds for suspension and, if uncorrected, withdrawal. Where a non-certified organisation displays the mark, or a document is presented that Securo Cert did not issue, we pursue it directly and we will say so publicly on the register entry.