Action required

Management Systems Accreditation Program certification bodies may implement extensions to their transition plans for the schemes noted below. Additionally, applicable certification bodies shall implement remote auditing guidance as published for quality management and food safety schemes. 

Affected customers

Management Systems SCC accredited Certification Bodies (CBs).

Background

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, extensions have been granted for the transition of various standards as well as IAF Mandatory Documents. As certification bodies begin to implement, or expand on remote auditing, additional documentation has been published to guide the use of remote auditing in certain schemes. 

New requirements

The following documents have been granted extensions to the transition deadlines:

• IAF Mandatory Documents (MDs) e.g. MD5, MD22: All IAF MD transitions are extended for six months.
• ISO 50001: 2018 Energy Management Systems: New extension deadline 2022-02-21. Six month extension. The audit for transition can be done with remote audit techniques, following what has already been clarified in Q5 of the IAF FAQ.
• ISO 22000: 2018 Food Safety Management Systems: New extension deadline 2021-11-31. Six month extension. The audit for transition can be done with remote audit techniques, following what has already been clarified in Q5 of the IAF FAQ.
• ISO 45001: 2018 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems: New extension deadline 2021-09-30. OHSAS 18001 certification can be extended by up to six months, which means the extension on transition to ISO 45001:2018.

Remote auditing
ISO/TC176 - ISO 9001 Auditing Practices Group has published a new paper on remote audits during the COVID-19 pandemic, giving recommendations for the audit programme, audit planning, audit realization and audit conclusions, and includes an annex describing risks and opportunities for remote auditing. 

The IAF Food Working Group - Task Force GFSI has produced a document on how remote auditing processes and procedures defined in international standards and IAF documents can be used in accredited food safety certification.

All COVID-19 related information can be accessed from the hub on the IAF website (see box to the left of Latest News on the IAF homepage).

IAF has also published a “FAQs section - IAF Frequently Asked Questions COV-ID-19 Outbreak” at https://iaffaq.com.

Deadline

Effective immediately.

Questions?

Please contact Abdel Kassou, Manager, Compliance and Assessment Services, Accreditation Services, at abdel.kassou@scc.ca or +1 613 238 3222 ext. 443