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ISO/IEC 17020:2012 'Conformity Assessment - Requirements For The Operation Of Various Types Of Bodies Performing Inspection'
The 2012 revision of ISO/IEC 17020 was released in March 2012 and has been modified from the 1998 (BS EN ISO/IEC 17020:2004) edition quite significantly. As well as updating their courses to meet the requirements of the new standard, Excel Partnership has also published a free comparison document which covers the changes for those companies already working to the 1998 version. This will help inspection bodies understand the changes as they transition to the new standard over a three year until March 2015.
Some of the key revisions include:
- A new requirement for a ‘risk-based’ approach to identifying activities or relationships that could jeopardise impartiality and for the organisation to adopt controls to eliminate or minimise such risks;
- Requirements relating to confidentiality have been expanded;
- The introduction of the concept of ‘preventive’ as well as ‘corrective’ actions;
- Training, authorisation and competency requirements have been expanded including ongoing monitoring of personnel
- A list of elements which must be included in an inspection report or certificate has been specified
- Management system requirements can be fulfilled either by meeting the requirements contained within ISO/IEC 17020 or ISO 9001.
Excel’s Introduction and Internal Auditor course for ISO/IEC 17020:2012 will include a comparison of the two issues and you can request a free copy of our comparison document via our website.
