18 September 2026 · Sterling International Consulting · Reviewed by Kaushal Sutaria, Lead Auditor
On Wednesday 16 September 2026 ISO published ISO 9001:2026, the sixth edition of the world’s most widely used management system standard. We said last week that we would report on the ISO 9001:2026 standard rather than the draft, so this special edition does exactly that: every change below has been checked against the standard as issued, not against the FDIS, and every change carries its clause number.
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Published on 16 September: the facts
ISO 9001:2026, Quality management systems — Requirements, is listed in the ISO catalogue at stage 60.60 (International Standard published) with a publication date of 2026-09-16. It runs to 36 pages. It cancels and replaces ISO 9001:2015 and incorporates Amendment 1:2024, the climate-change amendment, into the main text. It was prepared by ISO/TC 176/SC 2 in collaboration with CEN, so it will also appear as EN ISO 9001:2026 in Europe. ISO has said that a digitally enhanced version of the content will be available from 1 October 2026.
The verified change list, with clause numbers
ISO’s Foreword lists six main changes. Read against the text, they resolve into the following.
| Change | Where it lands | What it asks of you |
|---|---|---|
| Quality culture and ethical behaviour | 5.1.1 i) and NOTE 2; 7.1.4 NOTE; 7.3 e) | Top management promotes it; every person doing work under your control is aware of it |
| Risks and opportunities separated | 6.1.1; 6.1.2 (risks); 6.1.3 (opportunities); 9.1.3 e) f); 9.3.2 g) h) | Determine, analyse and evaluate each; plan actions for each; evaluate and review effectiveness separately |
| Management of change strengthened | 6.3 c), e), f), g) | Consider information availability, communication of the change, how effectiveness is monitored and how results are reviewed |
| Policy tied to context and strategy | 5.2.1 e); 5.2.2 d) | The policy takes the context into account and supports strategic direction; it is implemented, not only displayed |
| Interested-party requirements and changes | 4.2 c); 9.3.2 c) | Decide which stakeholder requirements the QMS will address; review changes in stakeholder needs at management review |
| Core terms defined in the standard | Clause 3 (3.1 to 3.20) | No new task; the definitions now bind the text |
| Organisational knowledge | 7.1.6 | Knowledge is retained, applied and shared, not merely maintained |
| Climate change in the base text | 4.1; 4.2 NOTE | Determine whether climate change is relevant (already required since Amd 1:2024) |
| Continual improvement restructured | 10.1 (former 10.3 merged in) | Improvement explicitly covers processes and future needs; renumber anything citing 10.3 |
| Annex A rewritten; Annex B removed | Annex A.1 to A.10 | Informative; A.2 becomes the reference for what words such as “appropriate”, “applicable” and “consider” mean |
The full register, item by item across all ten clauses, is on our clause-by-clause page.
What has not changed
The ten-clause structure, the process approach, PDCA and risk-based thinking are all intact. Clause 8, which carries the operational requirements, is substantively identical to 2015. No new mandatory documents or records have been added; the wording that requires them has changed, and we have listed every document and record the standard asks for on a separate page. There is still no requirement for a quality manual, documented procedures or a management representative.
The transition period is set: 30 September 2029, with four milestones before it
On the same day ISO published the standard, Global ACI (Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated, which took over the roles of IAF and ILAC on 1 January 2026) published the transition requirements: Global ACI-TECH-3-TR 2029-09-30 (M), Transition Requirements for ISO 9001:2026, version 1.0, issued 4 September 2026. The transition period is three years, ending 30 September 2029. Accreditation bodies must be ready to assess certification bodies against the 2026 edition by 31 March 2027; certification bodies must submit their transition declarations by 30 June 2027; accreditation-body transition decisions must be completed by 30 September 2027; from 31 March 2028 initial certifications may only be issued to ISO 9001:2026; and by 30 September 2029 every certified organisation must have completed its transition, after which ISO 9001:2015 certificates and the accreditations behind them are no longer valid. The transition audit may be conducted during a scheduled surveillance or recertification audit or as a special transition audit, may be conducted remotely by ICT, and must review the changed requirements, changes in the organisation’s context and the need for any other changes to the system, with the certification body deciding and justifying any additional audit time. Any page or proposal that still says the deadline is unconfirmed, or that IAF will set it, is working from old information. Our transition deadline page carries the milestones.
“Instant upgrade” offers have started; treat them as a warning sign
Within a day of publication, offers to “re-issue your certificate to ISO 9001:2026” without an audit began circulating. An accredited certificate to the new edition can only be issued after the certification body has assessed your system against the changed requirements, in a transition audit that is either combined with a surveillance or recertification visit or held separately, and only once that body’s accreditation covers the 2026 edition, which the Global ACI milestones place during 2027 at the earliest. A certificate offered without either condition is not an accredited certificate. Our guide to verifying a certificate explains how to check.
What Philippine organisations should do this month
Obtain the standard from ISO or the Bureau of Philippine Standards, and have the person who runs your system read it end to end. Brief the leadership team on the four changes that need their behaviour rather than a document: quality culture and ethical behaviour, opportunity-based thinking, a policy that supports the strategy, and planned, communicated, reviewed change. Ask your certification body, in writing, when its accreditation for ISO 9001:2026 is expected and how it intends to conduct your transition audit. Run a gap analysis against the ISO 9001:2026 standard, not the draft; the pre-publication readiness reviews many organisations did in July were sound, but the register above is what an auditor will use. And put the transition itself through your own change-planning process under 6.3, because auditors have started asking to see exactly that.
Transition deadlines at a glance
- ISO 9001:2026 — published 16 September 2026. Transition ends 30 September 2029 (Global ACI-TECH-3-TR 2029-09-30 (M)); initial certifications only to the 2026 edition from 31 March 2028.
- ISO 14001:2026 — published 15 April 2026. Transition ends 30 April 2029 (Global ACI-TECH-3-TR 2029-04-30 (M), published 14 September 2026); initial certifications only to the 2026 edition from 31 October 2027.
- ISO/IEC 27001:2022 — transition closed on 31 October 2025; certificates to the 2013 edition are no longer valid.
- ISO 45001 — revision at ballot; publication expected in 2027, as reported in last week’s edition.
- ISO 22000 — ballot result under evaluation; no publication date yet.
The weekly ISO Standards & Revision News returns on Sunday; the ISO 9001:2026 playbook has been updated against the ISO 9001:2026 standard. If your organisation needs its transition planned rather than explained, Sterling’s transition consulting team is on +63 977 815 1204 and info@iso-philippines.com.
Don’t take our word for it — read our clients’.
80+ verbatim client feedback letters → — searchable by standard and industry, quoted word-for-word from signed originals you can verify. And see the organizations we serve — Unilab, McDonald’s, SAP, GE, ZTE, JLL and more.
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