Bulletin number:
Affected program:
Customers of Inspection Body Accreditation Program:
Section 8 of ISO/IEC 17020:2012 provides the IB with two options on how to establish, document and maintain a management system capable of achieving consistent fulfillment of the requirements. For either option, SCC is required to assessment those management system requirements.
SCC’s policy with regards to assessing each IB, based on their choice of either option A or option B, is as follows:
- If the IB declares option A in accordance with ISO/IEC 17020 cl. 8.1.2, SCC will assess the IB according to the requirements set out in ISO/IEC 17020 (cl. 8.2-8.8).
- If the IB declares option B in accordance with ISO/IEC 17020 cl. 8.1.3, SCC will assess the IB to the requirements of ISO 9001 – regardless of whether the CAB is certified to ISO 9001 or not.
This policy was agreed upon by all accreditation bodies in the Inter-American Accreditation Cooperation (IAAC).
The reason why SCC is required to conduct the assessment to ISO 9001 in option B is for the following reasons:
- An assessment conducted by the SCC to ISO 9001 will be specific to the inspection program. The ISO 9001 registration audit would consist of a general scope for the IB’s operations. It may not include the certification programs, or it would not be specific enough for the ISO/IEC 17020:2012 accreditation. SCC’s assessors are expected to be ISO 9001 experts, as it forms the foundation upon which the accreditation standards are built.
- An IB is very unlikely to be registered by another IB to ISO 9001.
If you have any questions about this policy, please contact Rassoulou Diallo, Manager, Technical Services at rdiallo@scc.ca or +1-613-238-3222 ext. 437.