To make the auditing of ISO quality management system standards more robust, ISO/CASCO are continuing with their activities to develop and revise what are commonly known as the 17021 ‘dash’ documents.
These ‘dash’ documents define the competence requirements for the auditors of management systems standards such as ISO 9001. They are used by Certification Bodies (CBs) to ensure their auditors are delivering competent certification audits and by Accreditation Bodies in the assessment of CBs.
Most recently, the revision of the ISO/IEC 17021-3 has started to reflect the recent publication of the leading standard management system standard, ISO 9001:2015. With the 2015 publication of the revised ISO 9001, refreshing the competence requirements for auditing helps ensure the strong and beneficial features of the new standard, such as risk-based thinking, enhanced stakeholder and supply-chain management are adequately covered in certification audits.
In addition to this work on the competence requirements for the ISO quality management system standard, ISO/CASCO have also just started work on the new standard (ISO/IEC 17021-9) for competence requirements for auditing of the anti-bribery management system standard ISO 37001.
Work also starts shortly on the development of ISO/IEC 17021-10 Competence requirements for auditing and certification of Occupational & Safety Management system standards, corresponding with the publication of the brand new ISO 45001 planned for publication later in 2016.