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The preliminary transition period notice for ISO/IEC 27006: 2015 AMD 1: 2020

The preliminary transition period notice for ISO/IEC 27006: 2015 AMD 1: 2020 - Information technology -- Security techniques -- Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of information security management systems - Amendment 1

Members of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) adopted a resolution on the transition period for ISO/IEC 27006: 2015 AMD 1: 2020 in the previous period

Please find the full text of the resolution below:

Transitional Arrangement for ISO/IEC 27006:2015 AMD 1:2020 - The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of the Technical Committee, resolved that the Transitional Arrangement associated with ISO/IEC 27006:2015 AMD 1:2020 - Information technology - Security techniques - Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of information security management systems – Amendment 1, will be two years from the last day of the month of publication of the amended standard.

Within this transition timeline:

ABs shall be ready to carry out transition assessments for ISO/IEC 27006:2015 AMD 1:2020, within eight months from the last day of the month of publication of the amended standard.

CBs shall have completed the transition to ISO/IEC 27006:2015 AMD1:2020, through office assessment, within 24 months from the last day of the month of publication of the amended standard.

The Accreditation Body of Serbia (ATS) will implement the transition to ISO/IEC 27006: 2015 AMD 1: 2020 through the assessments of certification bodies, after the adoption of this IAF decision by the European Accreditation Organization (EA). Further information regarding this matter will be published on the ATS website after the EA adopts this decision.

Note 1: ISO/IEC 27006:2015 AMD 1:2020, was published on the 27 March 2020.

Note 2: The transition is not a routine transition from one version of a standard to another. The transition only relates to the specific changes detailed in Amendment 1:2020.

The text of the resolution can be found on the following link: https://www.iaf.nu/articles/ISO_IEC_27006_2015_AMD_1_2020_Transitional_Arrangement_/661

 

TRANSITION PERIOD FOR ISO/IEC 17025 EXTENDED

As a result of the recent ILAC ballot the transition period for ISO/IEC 17025:2017 adopted as part of the ILAC Resolution GA 20.15 (November 2016) has been extended from 30 November 2020 to 1 June 2021. This extension has been granted to ensure all accreditation bodies and the accredited laboratories are able to achieve the remaining transitions in a robust manner under the restrictions imposed as a result of the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak.

At the end of the transition period, the accreditation of a laboratory to ISO/IEC 17025:2005 will not be recognised under the ILAC Arrangement.  The ISO/ILAC ISO/IEC 17025:2017 Transition Communique available from https://ilac.org/about-ilac/partnerships/international-partners/iso/  has been updated to reflect this extension to the transition period.

The Accreditation Body of Serbia will continue the implementation of the remaining transitions through the assessments that are to come (as planned). It will be enabled, however, that assessments shall be implemented in such a way to include the necessary timeline difference with respect to the original plans, taking into account the circumstances resulting from the global pandemic, as well as the detailed risk analysis.

According to the current dynamics and information provided by accredited testing and calibration laboratories, it is planned that, all assessments will be completed by the end of November 2020 that will include the transition to the new edition of the standard.

 

The Accreditation Body of Serbia has made a successful transition to the new edition of the ISO/IEC 17011:2017

On May 26, 2020, the EA Multilateral Agreement Council (EA MAC) made a decision confirming the ATS successful transition from ISO/IEC 17011:2004 to the new edition of ISO/IEC 17011:2017. It was made by online voting based on the ATS Self-Assessment Report documentary assessment by the team leader.

Hence, ATS has confirmed the previously signed EA MLA on mutual recognition of the equivalence of accreditation systems signed by the EA members' accreditation bodies recognizing the equivalence and reliability of reports and certificates issued by conformity assessment bodies across Europe (the EA region). According to the EA MLA Council (EA MAC) schedule, there will be a regular peer evaluation of ATS on site by EA at the end of 2021.

The decision to make a transition to the new edition of ISO/IEC 17011:2017 is available here.

Sincerely, your ATS

EA MLA Report 2019

EA MLA Report 2019 published

The European co-operation for Accreditation (EA) published the EA MLA Report 2019 on its website on April 14, 2020.

The EA MLA Report 2019 provides information on the activities of the EA Multilateral Agreement Committee (EA MAC) responsible for the efficient and impartial management and monitoring of peer evaluation. It also makes decisions related to the status of a signatory to a multilateral (EA MLA) or bilateral agreement (EA BLA) on the equivalence of the accreditation system at the level of EA or the European Union (EU). Additionally, the report provides an overview of the key activities implemented in 2019, as well as the decisions made regarding the signatories.

The EA MLA is an agreement signed between national accreditation bodies - successfully peer evaluated EA Full and Associate Members - to recognize the equivalence, reliability and acceptance by the European market of certification, verification, inspection and calibration certificates and test reports issued by accredited conformity assessment bodies.

The EA MLA provides the European market with a network of conformity assessment bodies that are competent within their scope of accreditation to issue reliable and credible statements of conformity for products and services, thereby reducing costs and adding value to business and consumers. This contributes to the freedom of trade by eliminating technical barriers.

The main goal of peer evaluation activities is to assess the ongoing compliance of NABs with the internationally agreed requirements. Next, one of their objectives is to ensure that the regulator, stakeholders, and businesses can have confidence in certificates and reports issued by accredited conformity assessment bodies under the EA MLA.

Within the EA MLA/BLA has been signed by 34 EA members so far, the following decisions were made by the EA MLA Council (EA MAC) during 2019 related to extending the signed scope of the agreement or signing a new field of ​​the agreement:

Activities in May:

- National Accreditation Authority (NAH) became a signatory to the EA MLA in the field of proficiency testing providers;

- Slovenian Accreditation, became a signatory of the EA MLA in the field of medical examinations;

- SNAS, Slovak National Accreditation Service, became a signatory to the EA MLA in the field of proficiency testing providers;

-Turkish Accreditation Agency (TURKAK), become a signatory of the EA MLA in the field of  Greenhouse Gas Validation and Verification.

Activities in October:

- the German national accreditation body DAkkS, became a signatory of the EA MLA agreement in the field of manufacturers of reference materials according to the ISO 17034 standard;

- Georgian National Accreditation Body became a signatory of the EA BLA in the field of medical examinations according to the ISO 15189.

Since 2017, EA has extended the scope of the EA MLA for reference materials producers (RMP) according to EN ISO 17034. After the first peer evaluations and the first successfully evaluated members in 2018, the scope of the EA MLA was extended in 2019 for seven signatories to this agreement for reference materials producers (RMP).

Also, the scope of the EA MLA was extended in November 2019, by the decision of the General Assembly, to the field of ​​"Validation and Verification", and the EA MLA standard level 3 was adopted standard EN ISO/IEC 17029: Conformity Assessment-General principles and requirements for validation and verification bodies was adopted as a new EA MLA standard level 3.

Peer evaluations according to the new version of EN ISO/IEC 17011 progressed very well in 2019, when about one-third of the signatories of the EA MLA successfully made the transition from the previous version of the standard. Decisions regarding the transition of other signatories to the EA MLA must be made by November 2020.

EA has become the first regional group to sign the ILAC MRA for Proficiency Testing Provider (PT providers) Accreditation under ISO/IEC 17043.

MAC Chair, Paulo Tavares (IPAC, Portugal), points out that we will face significant challenges in the future. The COVID-19 pandemic, which will contribute to the current unfavorable situation worldwide as well as the financial crisis will have an impact on the infrastructure for conformity assessment. He adds that strong, but also flexible systems of accreditation and peer evaluation are vital for maintaining trust in the public service provided by accreditation bodies.

You can download the EA MLA Report 2019 here.

The EA release: Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak

The European co-operation for Accreditation (EA) published a statement on its website on the impact of the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, as follows:

Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the subsequent travel restrictions established by national governments in the vast majority of countries both conformity assessment and accreditation activities have been seriously affected in different ways. In particular, conformity assessment bodies (CABs) and national accreditation bodies (NABs) are being forced to cancel or postpone most of their “in situ” activities such as on-site assessments, audits, witnessing visits and inspections and they will have to face the situation of only being able to provide their services with a workforce that that is now mostly working remotely. This will affect the service provided and also lead to a possible temporary lack of access to certain supplies or services normally subcontracted by the CABs.

Under these circumstances although not all the applicable standards foresee the use of remote assessment techniques, including document reviews, and recognizing that these assessment techniques may not always enable exactly the same objective to be achieved as on-site assessments, EA suggests the use of these techniques whenever needed to substitute or complement on-site assessments.

Nevertheless EA recognises that, in certain circumstances, accredited CABs and NABs will have to take difficult decisions that could include stopping the provision of certain services or temporarily deviating, in order to be able to provide the services, from certain requirements included in the standards or in the accreditation rules.

When facing these situations, both EA members and accredited CABs are required to act responsibly, to analyse the risk of providing services with deviations from the requirements and not to provide them if such deviations jeopardize the technical validity of that specific activity. EA also expects EA NABs and accredited CABs to act with full transparency, informing affected clients of any change in the procedures and keeping records justifying the decisions taken.

Accreditation is an international activity so we recommend both NABs and accredited CABs to visit the ILAC and IAF websites where they can find useful information regarding aspects of global impact. This information also contains valuable information regarding required transition periods like the transition of laboratories to ISO/IEC 17025:2017.

For activities performed in the regulatory field or under a specific scheme CABs must seek information from scheme owners or relevant competent authorities on how they expect related conformity assessment activities should be handled under these circumstances.

As the situation is constantly changing and different countries are establishing different measures to adapt to it, accredited CABs should contact their NAB for further details or questions.

EA will closely follow the development of the coronavirus crisis in order to take any further action when needed and will publish more specific advice and relevant information.

Further information from IAF: https://iaffaq.com

Further information from ILAC: https://ilac.org/latest_ilac_news/potential-impact-of-coronavirus-outbreak-on-accreditation-activities

Sincerely, your ATS

IAF Frequently Asked Questions list: COVID-19

Call to action for all certification bodies to follow IAF guidelines

All certification bodies are invited to follow the IAF guidelines given at https://iaffaq.com/  through the FAQ Forum regarding the new situation related to COVID-19, and accredited certification.

In order to address some of your doubts, IAF has published the answers to the most frequently asked questions (https://iaffaq.com/) regarding the situation on its website. The answers are being updated on a daily basis, so it is necessary for accredited certification bodies to regularly monitor the forum.

Should you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact Natalija Jovicic Zaric MSc, Assistant Director of Development and Quality via e-mail: office@ats.rs