posted 14 March 2000 01:34 AM               

It totally depends on the scope of the procedure. If you write a procedure for qualified accountants, you wouldn't re-write massive passages from the bean counter codes of practice, you'd just refer to the relevant doc's that their qualifications pre-qualify them to be in tune with. Likewise you wouldn't re-write a safety approved code of practice, if the scope of the procedure has it only applying to safety professionals.
If you then want to apply the same code of practice to someone on the shop floor, you spell out exactly what their responsibilities and level of authority are, and lay out the steps they must follow - they have never heard of the code of practice before, wouldn't know where to find it, and if they read it they possibly wouldn't understand it anyway.
It all gets back to 4.9 process control, and writing at a level appropriate to the target audience.

(For any reader who didn't know) Any external document referenced in the QMS should be registered to ensure that the latest info is available, and be accessible to those with a reasonable need for access. (well that's what I believe)