What is independent assurance?

Like many safety-critical sectors, railways have influential stakeholders — governments, regulators, financial institutions and passengers — who expect a degree of third party assurance on issues related to safety and quality.

Whether we are assessing new signalling products against international standards such as EN 50126, or the construction of entire rail systems, we offer a portfolio of independent assurance services that includes:

• Accredited Notified Body, Designated Body and Assessment Body services.
• Independent Safety Assessment and Railway Product Certification services, for the safety approval of global products, systems and entire railways.
• Test and measurement services for the rail sector, including vehicles, components and signalling products.
• In the UK market, we also provide UK Approved Body services and are also the country's only UKAS accredited Assessment Party for heritage vehicles.

Ricardo Certification comprises a set of companies within the Ricardo group that perform independent assurance and testing services in rail and other sectors.

Our certification businesses are globally recognised not only for their trusted expertise but also for their detailed understanding of railways around the world. This reputation has led to our teams being appointed to some of the industry's most challenging and high-profile projects.

International portfolio

In Europe, teams are performing the Notified Body role on the central section of London’s Elizabeth Line and providing assurance services for the migration of Denmark's national network to ERTMS operation and control.

In Asia, Ricardo Certification has helped introduce new signalling products to the market, including the first signalling technologies to be developed by domestic suppliers.

We also have extensive experience of providing safety assessment services in the Middle East, with previous projects including the Dubai Metro, Etihad Rail, Riyadh Metro and Qatar's programme of integrated urban and national systems. 

Each of our services can be performed from offices around the world, and many of our accreditations are classed as multi-site.