Departing from the traditional approach of issuing Guidance and Policy documents, the International Accreditation Forum decided to "put more teeth" in it's portfolio and created a set of mandatory documents:
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5. IAF Mandatory Documents (MD Series)
IAF publishes Mandatory Documents which are required to be used by accreditation bodies when accrediting certification/registration bodies to assure that they operate their programs in a consistent and equivalent manner. IAF Mandatory documents are not intended to establish, interpret, subtract from or add to the requirements of any ISO/IEC Guide or Standard, but simply to assure consistent application of those Guides or Standards.
Copies of all published IAF Mandatory Documents are available below.
IAF MD 1:2007 Certification of Multiple Sites Based on Sampling
(Issue 1, issued on 20 November 2007; Application from 15 September 2008)This document is mandatory for the consistent application of Clause 9.1.5. of ISO/IEC 17021:2006 and is based upon guidance previously provided in IAF GD2: 2005 Annex 3 and IAF GD6:2006, clause G.5.3.5 - G.5.3.13. All clauses of ISO/IEC 17021:2006 continue to apply and this document does not supersede any of the requirements in that standard. This mandatory document is not intended exclusively for Quality Management Systems (QMS) and Environmental Management Systems (EMS) and may be used for other management systems. However, relevant standards may provide specific requirements for multiple sites or preclude the use of sampling (eg. ISO/IEC 27006, ISO/TS 22003).IAF MD 2:2007 Transfer of Accredited Certification of Management Systems
(Issue 1, issued on 14 December 2007; Application from 15 September 2008)This document is mandatory for the consistent application of Clause 9.1.1. of ISO/IEC 17021:2006 and is based upon guidance previously provided in IAF GD2: 2005 Annex 4 and IAF GD6:2006 Annex 2. All clauses of ISO/IEC 17021:2006 continue to apply and this document does not supersede any of the requirements in that standard. This mandatory document is not intended exclusively for Quality Management Systems (QMS) and Environmental Management Systems (EMS) and may be used for other management systems.
IAF MD 3:2008 Advanced Surveillance and Recertification Procedures (ASRP)
(Issue 1, issued on 1 February 2008; Application from 15 September 2008)This document provides normative criteria for advanced surveillance and recertification procedures (ASRP) for consistent application of clause 9.1.1 of ISO/IEC 17021:2006 for determining subsequent adjustments to the audit program. This document addresses only Quality Management Systems (QMS) and Environmental Managements Systems (EMS), in which IAF members have had experience of implementing ASRP or its predecessor methodologies. The use of ASRP is not mandatory, but if an accreditation body wishes to permit their accredited certification body and its client(s) to opt for the use of ASRP, it is a requirement of IAF that the certification body and its client(s) conform to this document and be able to demonstrate conformity to the accreditation body.
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