Accreditation Cycle

The program for the accreditation of certification bodies certifying persons operates on a four year accreditation cycle that is structured with three years of surveillance activities followed by a reassessment activity every fourth year.

In advance of each fiscal year, a four year accreditation cycle plan will be developed or updated and provided to the CB. The accreditation program will identify the required assessment activities for each year of the accreditation cycle.

The accreditation cycle plan will be based on information submitted by the CB in the most recent Fixed Office Location Survey, and will consider experience gained during previous assessment activities, the assessment team’s recommendations, complaints received about accreditation, disclosed changes, publicly accessible information, and adequacy of response to UKIAF-issued findings. If at any point a location is changed, added, or removed, the Fixed Office Locations Survey is required to be completed and submitted to UKIAF within thirty calendar days of the change.

As identified in the accreditation cycle plan, surveillance activities for fixed office locations other than the head office will be sampled over the four year accreditation cycle. A sampling methodology will be implemented for identification of surveillance activities for fixed office locations.

Subcontracted entities, affiliates, partners, sister and parent organizations may be subject to assessment. If the objective evidence is found to be sufficient, UKIAF will perform surveillance activities at each fixed office location other than the head office, once over the four year accreditation cycle.

During the three years between initial accreditation and reaccreditation and between each reaccreditation, annual surveillance activities will be conducted at the CB head office and other fixed office locations to support continued accreditation.

The first surveillance activity will be conducted no later than twelve months from the date of the assessment performed to support initial accreditation. Each surveillance activity thereafter will take place no more than twelve months of the previous one. Each accreditation surveillance activity will be referenced by the designation S1, S2, S3 or RA depending on the stage of the CB in the accreditation cycle.

In the fourth year of the Accreditation Cycle, UKIAF will conduct reaccreditation assessments. Reaccreditation assessments will be performed at the head office of the CB (or the UKIAF accredited entity) and may be conducted at other fixed office locations. Witness audits will also be conducted for each normative standard for which the CB is issuing UKIAF accredited certificates. The process for the determination of the number and nature of witness audits is the same as the process identified for initial accreditation and continued accreditation.