Accreditation Cycle

The Management Systems accreditation program operates on a four year accreditation cycle that is structured with three years of surveillance activities followed by a reassessment activity every fourth year. Generally, 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 generally 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.

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

In advance of each fiscal year, a four year Accreditation Cycle Plan will be developed or updated and provided to the CB. The Accreditation Cycle Plan will identify the required assessment activity(ies) 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, 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 submitted to UKIAF, within thirty calendar days of the change.

As identified in the Accreditation Cycle Plan, surveillance activities for fixed office locations will be sampled over the Accreditation Cycle. A sampling methodology will be implemented for identification of surveillance activities for fixed office locations. Subcontracted entities, affiliates, partners, sister and/or 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 once over the four year accreditation cycle.

Witness audits are required for each program and/or standard for which the CB is issuing UKIAF accredited certificates. To determine the number of witness audits required to support continued accreditation, UKIAF will consider the volume of certifications issued under UKIAF accreditation, CB sector scheme qualification(s), complexity and number of the accredited scopes and economies within which the CB is operating as well as other additional factors per IAF MD 17: Witnessing Activities for the Accreditation of Management Systems Certification Bodies.

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 some other fixed office locations. The process for the determination of the required number and nature of witness audits for each normative standard for which the CB is issuing UKIAF accredited certificates, is the same as the process identified for initial accreditation and continued accreditation.

When requested, the CB shall promptly provide to UKIAF the complete and updated schedule of confirmed and planned audits (dates, location, audit team composition, audit type and scope, etc.), in order to allow the UKIAF to schedule or update the Accreditation Cycle Plan for the coverage of the scope of accreditation.

A CB may request that UKIAF conduct a joint assessment at a fixed office location with another accreditation body or that UKIAF consider another accreditation body’s oversight results in lieu of performing an assessment activity identified in the Accreditation Cycle Plan. In such cases the CB must make the request in writing at least four months prior to the planned activity.

UKIAF will deploy an assessment team to sufficiently observe all audit activities. In some cases, this means there may be fewer UKIAF assessors than CB auditors at a given audit.