Management Systems Update: Withdrawal of MD 3 and new issue of MD 5

Action required

Accredited management system certification bodies must transition certified clients away from MD 3 Advanced Surveillance and Recertification Procedures.  

Accredited management system certification bodies shall follow the new issue of MD 5 Determination of Audit Time of Quality, Environmental, and Occupational Health & Safety Management Systems, in order to calculate audit time.  

Affected customers

Certification bodies who are accredited under ISO/IEC 17021-1.

Background

Acting on the recommendation of the Technical Committee, the IAF General Assembly has approved the withdrawal of MD 3, as documented in IAF Resolution 2019-16. 

ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OH&SMS) was published in 2018.  MD 5 was updated to include requirements for occupational health and safety management systems.  

New requirements

For certification bodies currently applying MD 3, SCC will evaluate the transition away from this document during regular office assessments. 

MD 3 will be removed from the scope of accreditation by the deadline outlined below, and its use past this date will result in the issuance of a nonconformity. 

MD 5 has been revised to address OH&SMS.  Key changes include a definition of complexity category, specifics for addressing remote auditing, and a new annex to address risk and complexity. 

Deadlines

IAF MD 3: 2008 Advanced Surveillance and Recertification Procedures: certification bodies must transition certified clients away from this document by 2020-10-31.

IAF MD 5: 2019 Determination of Audit Time of Quality, Environmental, and Occupational Health & Safety Management Systems has an application date of 2020-05-07. 

Questions?

Please contact Abdel Kassou, Manager, Compliance and Assessment Services, at abdel.kassou@scc.ca or +1 613 238 3222 for more information.