Witness Exam Requirements

As part of the accreditation process, UKIAF is required to witness the certification process. Witness activities could be of the organization’s certification/examination process or by each certification/licensing scheme. Witness activities may also be conducted to review the implementation of other parts of the CB’s quality system. Examples of such witness audits include but are not limited to re-certification process, certification and/or examination, criteria development, committee meetings. This activity is part of the CB demonstrating conformance with the accreditation requirements.

UKIAF’s policy is to conduct one witness exam activity during the initial assessment period, followed by two witness exams over the four year accreditation cycle. These witness exams will generally occur in the second surveillance year, and in the reaccreditation year.

Initial accreditation or scope extensions can be conditional upon the successful scheduling of one witness audit within 6 months from the date of the granting of accreditation. If the witness audit is not scheduled within the 6 months’ timeframe then the accreditation or scope extension will be withdrawn.