The certification offered jointly by our partners and our audit/certification body is accredited by two different accreditation bodies, both of which operate on a worldwide basis. The first and most well known in ASCB which accredits all IQS audit staff visited operations globally, the second Global Accreditation accredits our audits carried out online.
Visited Audits: From our British head office, we both arrange registered local auditors to visit customers and carry out audits where we have them available, or we send auditors from the UK, all are fully trained, and usually come from a business management background so as to ensure they understand the needs of business, and are used to living in the real world. In the event that a problem is found, the experienced auditor can frequently offer a solution which may be able to be fixed before the auditor leaves or the auditor may give a period of perhaps a month to fix the problem, the fix can usually be sent by e-mail to the UK head office and the problem is closed, only Major or issues causing a hazard to safety or health are likely to delay the issue of certification. Our auditors face these issues every day of the working week, and so what may be daunting to the customer, may be a simple fix to an auditor.
Online Audits: Sometimes it doesn’t make common or economic sense to travel to remote or difficult to access places around the world. In some such circumstances it is possible for us to carry out online audits.
Our second accreditation body has seen and approved our online audit system and has agreed to accredit the certification it offers, the main difference between the two is simple, there is no auditor visit, thus the cost is significantly lower.
But this system is not for everyone, where possible we would always recommend a “site visit” audit.
We will never agree to an online audit for companies that: perform hazardous duties, use hazardous substances, have health or safety implications, handle medical equipment or waste, or work with the handling of foods for human consumption. We will also never issue a health & safety standard certification, or certification to organisations in other than remote areas.
If you wish, you can start by completing a simple questionnaire that will give us the information we need to create the manuals and supporting set-up documentation on your behalf, this is a low cost option that is there if you want it.
Our audit method is to send a Microsoft Excel Spread Sheet Audit Report by e-mail to the customer based on information advised about the business.
The customer fills out the audit questionnaire by answering the questions on the audit report.
For certain answers given, the audit report will have a “Pop-up” note asking the customer to send us a copy of the document to support the answer given to the question concerned, this is likely to happen several times during the completion of the report, similar to when an auditor is carrying out a visited audit.
At the end of the audit, the customer returns the completed report and either scanned or file copy of supporting evidence.
Our “in-house” Audit Manager or Scheme Manager will review the resulting report (as they do with reports received from our approved on site auditors) and will then offer a judgement giving a pass, observation(s), or Non-conformance(s). Observations will need to be cleared by the next annual audit, Minor Non-conformances will need to be cleared usually within 28 days, Major/Critical Non-conformances must be cleared before the issue of certification. In either case the in-house auditor responsible will send a reply e-mail telling what, if anything needs to b done, or will forward an electronic copy of the certification.
Once issued, all certificates are entered on to our register which can be checked by following the link on the certificate (either QR Code or web address, then enter either the company name shown on the certificate or enter the certificate registration number. All genuine certificates issued by us will appear on your screen giving the data about the certificate and its expiry date.
If at this point you do not see anything showing on your screen scroll down as your screen resolution might not match that of our system. If a note appears says data not found, please contact us and we will investigate in case there is an error if not then it is possible that the certificate was not issued by us. Only 2 members of our staff have the necessary access codes to enter certificate data to our register, this entry is a part of the certificate issue procedure that is followed by our staff.
Our aim is to offer a verifiable certification system that can be checked for authenticity anywhere in the world just be having sight and detail about the witnessed certificate. The web address concerned is “Mobile Friendly” and QR scanning apps are freely available for most recognised operating systems.
Our web sites show a distinctive COMPLAINTS tab. We encourage all customers to complain if they are not fully satisfied. Our view is that a complaint is an opportunity to improve, something we demand of all our customers, and we must lead by example. We will investigate every complaint received no matter what the cause, and offer our findings or seek further information where needed.
We have received 3 complaints in the last 11 years, one was relating to our refusal to carry out an online audit, one was concerning a sub contract audit body that we used in a part of the world that we could not visit, the last from the sub contract audit body who was dismissed by us for malpractice.
17 May 2015
Why not speak to a qualified auditor about your ISO Certification requirements, or visit our ISO Certification FAQ’s page
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