SCC Policy for Scope Extensions and List of Standards in the Product, Process, and Service Certification Accreditation Program (CBAP)
Action required
SCC has, effective immediately, established a new policy for scope extensions for the addition of standards that the certification body (CB) wishes to use in its certifications issued under SCC accreditation. This policy applies to certification bodies in SCC Certification Body Accreditation Program (CBAP). CBs are requested to take note of the requirements detailed below.
Affected customers
Accredited product, process, and service certification bodies, as well as SCC assessors and technical experts working in SCC CBAP.
Background
SCC has implemented this policy in order to provide clarity to the certification bodies in relation to scope extensions. In addition, this policy will allow certification bodies to quickly and efficiently adapt, enabling them to provide certifications in an environment of rapidly changing standards and technologies.
New requirements
The policy is as follows:
- If a CB wishes to provide SCC accredited certifications using a standard that falls under an ICS code that is already on its published SCC scope of accreditation and in the same technical area, the CB may certify to that standard under its SCC accreditation without submitting a scope modification application.
If a CB wishes to provide SCC accredited certifications using a standard that falls under an ICS code that is not on its published SCC scope of accreditation, the CB must submit a scope modification application.
All accredited CBs shall have a current list of standards to which they offer certification under SCC accreditation, and these standards shall be grouped into customer defined technical categories (e.g. ‘plumbing’, ‘hazardous locations’, ‘photovoltaic’, etc.). This list shall be in MS Excel or a tab delimited format. CBs have until March 31st, 2019 to document their list of standards. Beginning April 1st, 2019, the list of standards shall be available for SCC assessments. If the list of standards is not available for an assessment, an NCR against this bulletin will be issued during the assessment.
CBs shall have a documented process in place to update their list of standards.
If an ICS code is defined in the standard itself, that ICS code must be used.
If there is no ICS code listed in the standard itself, CBs are expected to use their best professional judgement in determining the ICS code, and document the technical rationale for the decision. Note that these records may be assessed by SCC at any time.
If your organization requires a confirmation from SCC that a standard falls under an ICS code on your scope of accreditation (e.g. a letter for a regulator), a scope modification application is required, for which fees are applicable.
Deadline
This policy is in effect immediately. CBs are reminded that they must submit their list of standards by ‘category’ before they can potentially qualify.
Questions?
Please contact Elias Rafoul, Vice President, Accreditation Services, at elias.rafoul@scc.ca or +1 613 238 3222 for more information.