UK Certification and Assessment Ltd Impartiality Policy has been established, Implemented by Top Management for safeguarding impartiality, this policy is a commitment UK Certification and Assessment Ltd Top Management to safeguard impartiality, manage its conflict of interest, ensure objectivity of Management System certification, Type-A Inspection, Training and maintain a professional environment. To meet the accreditation requirements of UALF (UNITED AKKREDITERING FORUM LTD) and to obtain the confidence of the client and interested party of UK Certification and Assessment Ltd.

The Impartiality Policy Statements of UK Certification and Assessment Ltd Top Management

UK Certification and Assessment Ltd Top Management has taken the responsibility and has the commitment to work impartially and maintain impartiality throughout its entire activities of UK Certification and Assessment Ltd Management System certification, Type-A Inspection, Training. UK Certification and Assessment Ltd shall not allow commercial, financial or other pressures to compromise impartiality, to provide the confidence to certified clients, interested party and accreditation Body (UAFL).

The Management system certification decisions shall be made based on the objective evidence of conformity (or nonconformity) obtained during the onsite audit and the certification decisions are not influenced by other interests and shall not allow commercial, financial or other pressures to compromise impartiality.

The Type-A Inspection activities and decision on final Inspection Report shall be made based on the objective evidence of conformity (or nonconformity) obtained during the onsite Inspection and the decisions on Inspection Report are not influenced by other interests and shall not allow commercial, financial or other pressures to compromise impartiality.

To obtain and maintain the confidentiality of client organization, accreditation body and interested party in UK Certification and Assessment Ltd certification process, the Inspection process, Training Process, and decision-making process. The UK Certification and Assessment Ltd has formed the committee of independent person to review the UK Certification and Assessment Ltd commitment of impartiality at regular interval to ensure that the impartiality is being maintained throughout the UK Certification and Assessment Ltd services of certification activities, Type-A Inspection activities, Training activities and to monitor the source of income of UK Certification and Assessment Ltd.

Under the UK Certification and Assessment Ltd Impartiality Policy Commitment

• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd shall not certify/perform the Type-A Inspection / Training to its wholly-owned subsidiary or its parent organization.
• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd shall not certify/ Perform the Type-A Inspection / Training to its related body i.e the other organization where UK Certification and Assessment Ltd director is a shareholder or have any business relationship.
• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd shall be independent of the parties involved
• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd shall not Certify another certification body for its quality management system certification activities.
• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd and its personnel/ staff shall not engage in any activities that may conflict with their Impartiality.
• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd will not have or keep a commercial relationship with a client other than third-party conformity assessment / Type-A Inspection.
• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd and any part of the same legal entity and any entity under the organizational control of the UK Certification and Assessment Ltd shall not offer or provide management system consultancy.
• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd shall not be a part of a legal entity that is engaged in design, manufacture, supply, installation, purchase, ownership, use or maintenance of the items inspected.
• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd and any part of the same legal entity shall not offer or provide any management system consultancy (Including FSMS / Type-A Inspection).
• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd and any part of the same legal entity and any entity under the organizational control of the UK Certification and Assessment Ltd shall not offer or provide internal audits to its clients. A recognized mitigation of this threat is that the UK Certification and Assessment Ltd shall not certify a management system/ Type-A Inspection on which it provided internal audits for a minimum of two years following the completion of the internal audits.
• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd shall not certify a management system where a client has received management systems consultancy from a body that has a relationship with UK Certification and Assessment Ltd, this is a significant threat to impartiality. A recognized mitigation of this threat is that the UK Certification and Assessment Ltd shall not certify the management system for a minimum of two years following the end of the consultancy.
• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd shall not outsource audits / Type-A Inspection to a management system consultancy organization.
• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd's activities shall not be marketed or offered as linked with the activities of an organization that provides management system consultancy. The UK Certification and Assessment Ltd shall take action to correct inappropriate claims by any consultancy organization stating or implying that certification would be simpler, easier, faster or less expensive if the UK Certification and Assessment Ltd name were used. The UK Certification and Assessment Ltd shall not state or imply that certification would be simpler, easier, faster or less expensive if a specified consultancy organization were used.
• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd shall ensure that there is no conflict of interests, with personnel who have provided management system consultancy, including those acting in a managerial capacity, shall not be used by the UK Certification and Assessment Ltd to take part in an audit or other certification activities/ Type-A Inspection- if they have been involved in management system consultancy towards the client. A recognized mitigation of this threat is that a person shall not be used in UK Certification and Assessment Ltd for a minimum of two years following the end of the consultancy.
• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd shall take action to respond to any threats to its impartiality arising from the actions of other persons, bodies or organizations.
• All UK Certification and Assessment Ltd personnel, either internal or external or committees, who could influence the certification activities, shall act impartially and shall not allow commercial, financial or other pressures to compromise impartiality.
• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd and its personnel shall not engage in any activities that may conflict with their independence of judgment and integrity in relation to their inspection activities. In particular, they shall not be engaged in the design, manufacture, supply, installation, purchase, ownership, use or maintenance of the items inspected.
• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd shall require personnel, internal and external, to reveal any situation known to them that may present them or the UK Certification and Assessment Ltd with a conflict of interests. UK Certification and Assessment Ltd will record and use this information as input to identifying threats to impartiality raised by the activities of such personnel or by the organizations that employ them, and shall not use such personnel, internal or external unless they can demonstrate that there is no conflict of interests.
• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd Auditors/Inspector /Technical experts are prohibited for participating in the Audit of any organization to which they have given assistance, by consultancy or training (other than professionally registered auditor training), or where they have any financial or commercial interest for a minimum period of 2 years prior to the date of application of the organization for Certification/ Type-A Inspection.
• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd and its Audit Team Member /Inspector or staff shall not disclose the confidential information of Client to any third party, without consent of the client.
• All UK Certification and Assessment Ltd directly employed Management and Staff are required to declare all financial interests or business activities on commencement and during the period of employment.
• UK Certification and Assessment Ltd shall not be linked to a separate legal entity engaged in the design, manufacture, supply, installation, purchase, ownership, use or maintenance of the items inspected by the following:
  1. Common ownership, except where the owners have no ability to influence the outcome of an inspection.
  2. Common ownership appointees on the boards or equivalent of the organizations, except where these have functions that have no influence on the outcome of an inspection.
  3. Directly reporting to the same higher level of management, except where this cannot influence the outcome of an inspection.
  4. Contractual commitments or other means may have an ability to influence the outcome of an inspection.

Commitment for Maintaining the Impartiality

(By UK Certification and Assessment Ltd Staff, committee members, Inspecting Officer, Auditor, and other Certification Persons)

All the UK Certification and Assessment Ltd staff, Inspecting Officer, Auditor, and other Certification Persons, (including Committee member), working on behalf of UK Certification and Assessment Ltd – shall sign the confidential agreement with UK Certification and Assessment Ltd – for their commitments of not allow commercial, financial or other pressures to compromise impartiality.

Risk Identification, Analysis, and Mitigation

The Potential Risk Identification to Impartiality shall be carried out as per the Risk analysis instruction UK Certification and Assessment Ltd/QI/02, with consideration Analysis of threats to impartiality and Conflict of Interest.

The Monitoring and Mitigation of Residual Risk and its control shall be verified through Internal Audit and shall be reviewed by Top Management during Management review meeting and necessary decisions shall be made to further strengthen the control and minimize the risk to impartiality.

Monitoring and Review of Impartiality Policy

UK Certification and Assessment Ltd will monitor the impartiality policy statements compliance during Internal Audit, during the Management Review meeting and during the review of impartial committee review.