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Information about the transition to the new edition of SRPS ISO 14001:2015

Notices

The Accreditation Body of Serbia (ATS) hereby informs all interested parties that the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) published an informative document (IAF ID10:2015), that was made available on the IAF’s website, whereby it was defined that the transition period in case of all certification bodies accredited as per ISO/IEC 17021:2011 was set to be 3 years from the from the date of publication of ISO 14001:2015. Within this period accredited certification bodies have to prepare for the certification of environmental management systems in line with the new edition of the standard.

Within the defined transition period ATS will, during regular surveillance assessments or reassessments of accredited certification bodies providing certification of management systems, perform assessments at the request of the certification bodies for the purpose of confirming the transition to the certification of environmental management systems as per SRPS ISO 14001:2015. Exceptionally, ATS can, at the request of the certification bodies, perform a separate assessment (in order to speed up the procedure) to confirm that the transition to the new edition of the standard was carried out prior to the planned regular surveillance assessment or reassessment.

Pursuant to the recommendations from the IAF ID10:2015 document, accreditation of certification bodies providing certification of management systems as per the requirements of SRPS ISO 14001:2005 will be valid until 14th September 2018 at the latest. Scopes of accreditation of those certification bodies providing certification of management systems as per the requirements of SRPS ISO 14001:2005 for which the transition to the new edition of the standard will not be confirmed by 14th September 2018, will be reduced so that the part pertaining to certification of environmental management systems could be excluded therefrom.

Accredited certification bodies providing certification of management systems, wishing to transfer to the accredited certification of environmental management systems as per the requirements of SRPS ISO 14001:2015, can, from 23rd November 2015, submit applications for the transition to the new edition of the standard.

In addition to the application, accredited certification bodies have to submit to ATS the following documents:

  • their own plan on how to transfer to the certification of environmental management systems as per the requirements of SRPS ISO 14001:2015 with defined deadlines for the performance of necessary activities relating to audit and certification activities as per the requirements of the new edition of the standard that should be drafted by using the CB-related instructions from the IAF ID10:2015 document;
  • information about the communication between certification bodies and their clients as regards the transition to the new edition of the standard (e.g. are the clients ready and how many of them are ready to perform certification as per the requirements of SRPS ISO/IEC 14001:2015 and information about the plans as regards the necessary amendments to the clients’ management systems);
  • information about the client’s transition process and arrangement as regards the new edition of the standard should include at least the following:

    -    planned audit mode (one visit or staged visit) for the purpose of transition to the new edition of the standard;
    -    planning of concrete audits, including the planned mode in which the audits are carried out to check the application of the requirements of the new edition of the standard;
    -   plans reviewing the differences between DIS, FDIS and final edition of the standard and performance of additional activities (if specific activities such as staff training were carried out as per DIS or FDIS versions of the standard);
    -    certification document control, including expiry date and transition period;
  • all management system documents that were amended due to transition to certification as per the new edition of the standard with clear identification of changes;
  • personnel competence criteria that were put in place (respective skills and knowledge identified by the certification body on the basis of the requirements of the new edition of the standard) and evidence of the personnel competence, including updated records on evaluated competence of relevant personnel and information whether the new edition of the standard had any effects on technical fields the personnel is competent for, and, if need be, delivered training materials.

ATS-performed assessments will include at least the review of submitted documentation, one witnessing visit and one on-site assessment.

Performed witnessing will be an integral part of witnessing planned to be carried out during regular surveillance activities or necessary witnessing visits when performing assessments for the purpose of accreditation renewal, and hence it will not be an additional activity/cost for accredited certification bodies. Those clients of certification bodies that have already applied SRPS ISO 14001:2015 will be selected for the purpose of witnessing.

Accredited certification bodies must ensure that certification expiry dates on issued certification documents after initial audit or recertification audit that was carried out as per the old version of the standard are in line with the transition period end date.

Accredited certification bodies can grant certification as per SRPS ISO 14001:2015 only after a decision was made by ATS on their transition to certification as per the new edition of the standard and if clients, the environmental management systems of which are to be certified, demonstrated conformance with SRPS ISO 14001:2015.

Certification bodies providing certification of management systems that are in the process of initial accreditation for certification of environmental management systems as per SRPS ISO 14001:2005, and that are interested to be granted accreditation for certification as per the requirements of SRPS ISO 14001:2015, are obliged to submit to ATS an application requiring the change of the requested scope of accreditation. Hence, ATS will harmonise its assessment activities with each certification body depending on the phase of the CB accreditation process.