ABCB Chief Executive Wayne Terry was delighted to announce another added value member benefit. ABCB has partnered with Croner who will provide a free Business Support Helpline. This is a fantastic service for those who don’t have their own staff in house, but also a great way to get a second opinion for those who do.

Services include a free Business Support Helpline, offering ABCB members advice on Employment Law, Health Safety and Commercial Legal matters Commercial Legal covers over 60 topics including commercial contracts, insolvency, data protection, and property law.

Wayne Terry stated, “this new service to members adds yet another truly valuable service to members helping them to manage their business and risk on a day-to-day basis”.

ABCB are delighted to announce that they are proud winners of the Association Awards 2021 for ‘Business Member Association of the Year’.

Wayne Terry, Chief Executive of ABCB said “we are absolutely delighted to have won this prestigious award, and we thank the Association of Executives and the judging panel for bestowing the award on ABCB. This is truly recognition of the commitment of all of our members in collaborative thinking for the betterment of all certification bodies and the UK quality infrastructure”.

The big question facing the world of accreditation is what will the new normal look like when travel restrictions are lifted following the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Undoubtedly, during the pandemic the industry responded quickly and moved to remote auditing to ensure business and supply chains could continue. But what will happen once travel restrictions have been lifted, will we go back as we were before, or will we build on the lessons learnt in the past year or so?

With this mind ABCB approached UKAS who agreed to set up a joint task force under their Management Systems Certification Technical Advisory Committee to build upon and adapt the lessons learned into a more normal working environment, defining a framework for the provision of a blended approach to auditing that ensures the same level of confidence in accredited certification, whilst realising a more sustainable and flexible approach to its delivery.

This successful collaboration has produced UKAS TPS 74 – UKAS Guidance on the Use of a Blended Approach to Auditing for Management Systems by Certification Bodies, which has now been published.

Wayne Terry, ABCB Chief Executive said, “TPS 74 is a wonderful example of true collaboration and I want to thank UKAS for their foresight and cooperation and I also want to thank other stakeholders who contributed to this work, particularly IIOC and FCB who’s contributions were valuable to the overall outcome”.

During the COVID-19 Pandemic we saw a dramatic change in the way audits were delivered in order to maintain accreditation and certification and to keep supply chains operational, necessity required the significant adoption of remote auditing in many countries around the world. There is no doubt that speed with which the industry adapted was in large part due to the support and guidance provided by the IAF family, and the swift collaboration between its membership groups, Accreditation Bodies and Certification Bodies alike.   

This rapid change has driven numerous innovations in remote auditing techniques, methodologies, and tools as well as a great deal of experience gained by the certification and accreditation community leading to fantastic advances and most of all lessons learned. Much of this was shared via the excellent IAF FAQ resource.

But post lockdown, what will the future of assessments look like? How will these learnings and benefits be utilised to improve their effectiveness and enhance the benefits of ISO standards to end users? Wayne Terry, Chief Executive of ABCB, thinks collaboration will shape the future as the quality infrastructure develop a collaborative approach to Blended Audits.

ABCB recently began discussions with UKAS to discuss the move back to “normality” as lockdown restrictions lift and in particular how the approach to remote auditing and the guidance around it will change to retain the benefits gained whilst at the same time maintaining the value and the integrity of accredited certification.

There is no doubt this is a very important topic facing all Accreditation Bodies and Certification Bodies, so with this in mind a joint task force was initiated by the UKAS Management System Certification Technical Advisory Committee involving other CB representative bodies and key stakeholders  to develop an agreed approach to what will become the new normal.

Naturally, the approach will need to ensure that the integrity of the audit process is maintained in line with the current framework of IAF guidance and mandatory documents. Although previous restrictions on remote audits (such as the 30% limit contained in ISO 27006,) have currently been relaxed there will need to be a review to facilitate the adoption of a more risk-based approach that takes into account the way individual clients deploy and maintain their systems and industry specific factors.

Although the origins of the project will initially focus on the UK, once complete, it is intended to take the output for discussion at regional level through EA and then onto IAF thus bringing all the various elements of the IAF together through collaboration to shape the future of audits post COVID-19.

Given the extent of collaboration and speed of action by the industry during this crisis, I am very hopeful that we can have an agreed approach ready as each part of the globe exits this difficult situation.

June 9th 2020 marks World Accreditation Day (#WAD2020), a global initiative established by ILAC and IAF to promote the value of accreditation. This year’s theme focuses on how accreditation supports food safety, bolstering the confidence of consumers, suppliers, purchasers and specifiers in the quality and safety of food.

A joint statement released by the IAF and ILAC Chairs introduces the importance of accreditation in food safety, noting how it ensures competent and impartial inspection, certification and testing services in every part of local, national and international food chains. In doing so, accreditation supports the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Good Health and Well-being (SDG 3).

IAF and ILAC have produced a brochure and poster to highlight worldwide examples of the role accreditation plays in food safety; further examples and research are available on the Public Sector Assurance and Business Benefits websites. A video is also available on the IAF/ILAC YouTube channel. We welcome you to add your logo to the materials, and to encourage your customers and stakeholders to do the same.  

Follow IAF and ILAC on Twitter for more information about accreditation in the food safety sector in the days leading up to WAD. While the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting social distancing policies may disrupt physical WAD events, we encourage you to celebrate with us online using the hashtag #WAD2020.