The Accreditation Pathway

Earning Pathway Status is the first stage of your journey with CREST and brings you into the CREST ecosystem.

If your organisation is at an early stage of maturity and growth in providing cyber services, Pathway status provides an opportunity to develop at your own pace while accessing our resources to guide your progress.

This stage involves a registration process to enable us to identify your organisation and requires you to sign-up to the CREST Code of Conduct. By registering you are making a commitment to developing your professional standards and working towards an eventual CREST Accreditation.

You will be provided with a Pathway logo for your use and listed on our website along with other Pathway companies – at this stage, it is important to ensure that you only present your organisation as Pathway and not as a CREST-accredited Member.

See the full list of benefits for Pathway Organisations: CREST benefits

Annual fee: £250

Register your interest using our online form: Pathway Registration Form

Please note: Pathway organisations are required to advance to Pathway+ within two years of achieving this.

The Pathway+ stage builds on the Pathway stage, enabling you to learn more about the requirements of CREST standards and to measure your progress.

This stage involves your organisation conducting a self-assessment against both the CREST organisational standards (which relate to the maturity of your company in areas such as quality control and information security practices) and at least one cyber discipline standard. You will be asked to rate your development stage against a series of objectives, provide commentary and confirm the availability of evidence.

You will then formally attest to the accuracy of your self-assessment and submit it. We will not independently review the results at this stage, instead, there is a development tool for you to evaluate your maturity and identify areas for improvement, and a mechanism to prepare effectively for a future Accreditation and membership application.

You will be provided with a Pathway+ logo for your use and listed on our website along with other Pathway+ companies – at this stage, it remains important to ensure that you only present your organisation as Pathway+ and not as a CREST Accredited Member.

See the full list of benefits for Pathway+ Organisations: CREST benefits

Annual fee: £1,500

Registration will be available soon.

Please note: Pathway+ organisations are required to advance to CREST Membership within two years of achieving this.

The Member phase represents the formal application and awarding of CREST Accreditation and Membership.

Your organisation is required to submit a detailed Accreditation application for independent review, accompanied by appropriate evidence to support your submission, including the formal registration of your employees delivering services on your behalf to demonstrate they are suitably competent and qualified.

You can find out more about CREST Membership on our dedicated page.

See the full list of benefits for Members: CREST benefits

Application fee: £1,200

Joining & annual membership fee: payable upon request

Register your interest using our online form: Membership Registration Form

Please note: CREST Membership is not guaranteed for all participating organisations of The Pathway to Accreditation.

If you’re looking to progress quickly through our Accreditation Pathway, our Pathway/Pathway+ bundle allows you to achieve both statuses at the same cost as Pathway+ alone.

This option is designed to remove financial barriers for organisations eager to fast-track their development while still ensuring they meet the requirements of both stages.

– Move seamlessly from Pathway to Pathway+
– Save time and costs with a bundled application
– Get early access to self-assessment and gap analysis tools

Annual Fee: £1,500

Register your interest using our online form: Pathway Bundle Registration Form

As a CREST Member, you can apply for additional accreditations to expand the recognition of your cyber security service offerings. This allows your organisation to demonstrate quality and assurance across multiple disciplines.

– Enhance your service portfolio with additional CREST Accreditations
– Validate the quality of your organisation’s expanded service offerings
– Access CREST’s self-assessment tool to support your accreditation process

Application Fee: Starts at £1,200
No additional annual fee for existing Members

Register your interest using our online form: Add an Additional Accreditation Registration Form

Activities	Pathway	Pathway+	CREST Member
Organisational details registered
Basic company requirements met
Company signed code of conduct
Commitment to working towards CREST standards			-
Self-assessment against CREST company & 1+ discipline standards	-		-
Full company requirements independently reviewed and met	-	-
Full discipline requirements independently reviewed and met (1+ disciplines)
Skilled persons register completed by all in scope individuals	Encouraged	Strongly encouraged
Minimum one region subscribed to	-	-

The Pathway is open to organisations across the world that meet the relevant requirements.