IMPARTIALITY STATEMENT

SCOPE

Simply Certification recognise the importance of maintaining impartiality when conducting certification activities. The aim of this policy is to give confidence to all interested parties that the management meets the specified requirements. Parties that can have an interest in certification include: 

• The clients of certification bodies 
• The customers of an organisation whose management system are certified 
• Government, legal and regulatory authorities (local, regional, national, international) 
• Consumers and members of the public 
• Parent organisations, and managerial and non-managerial, temporary, and permanent 
• Workers of a client organisation 
• Suppliers, contractors and sub-contractors 
• Workers’ organisations (trade unions) and employers’ organisations 
• Owners, shareholders, clients, visitors, relatives of workers, local community, and neighbours of the organisation and the public; customers, medical and other community services 
• Media, academia, businesses 
• Associations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). 

Simply Certification provide an objective and fair assessment and certification process. Impartiality is at the core of our business ethos. Simply Certification have in place an Impartiality Terms of Reference and an Impartiality Committee to safeguard the impartiality of its activities. Each of our employees and associates have the responsibility for complying with our process and guidelines about impartiality. 

To provide a sounding board, and to ensure sufficient weight and importance is attached to the need for objectivity in all that it does, Simply Certification has appointed a formal Impartiality Committee. The Committee has been appointed by the Directors to monitor all aspects of our business activity. All members of the Committee have extensive and value adding experience in the individual sectors which they represent; thus, enabling them to guarantee a wealth of knowledge, expertise, and integrity to Simply Certification. Any instance where an employee, associate or customer feel there is a threat to impartiality, you are welcome to contact us to that we can refer this to our Directors and where required, our Impartiality Committee.  

2.0 Definitions  

2.1 Impartiality  

As defined in ISO/ICE 17065:2012(E), ‘presence of objectivity’.  

‘NOTE 1 Objectivity is understood to mean that conflicts of interest do not exist, or are resolved so as not to adversely influence the activities of the body.  

NOTE 2 Other terms that are useful in conveying the element of impartiality are independence, freedom from conflicts of interest, freedom from bias, freedom from prejudice, neutrality, fairness, open-mindedness, even-handedness, detachment and balance.’  

2.2 Threats  

We recognise the following as threats to our impartiality: 

• Self-interest – threats that arise from a person or body acting in their own interest 
• Self-review – threats that arise from a person or body reviewing their own work 
• Familiarity – threats that arise from a person or body being too familiar with or trusting of another person or entity instead of seeking out objective audit evidence to back up conclusions 
• Intimidation – threats that arise from a person or body having a perception of being coerced openly or secretively, such as threat to be replaced or displaced.

2.3 Conflicts of Interest 

A conflict of interest is any circumstance where the interest of Simply Certification differs from those of an individual acting on our behalf. This may be in the form of an associate performing assessment activity for an entity they have a close business or personal relationship with. This kind of scenario must be eradicated to avoid any influence of the assessor’s judgement and lack of impartiality. We recognise the following scenarios as a conflict of interest: 

• An individual auditing a system they have implemented or provided consultancy support to 
• Auditing the system of a family member or friend 
• Accepting, directly or indirectly, any kind of personal advantage offered by the organisation or individual to be audited 
• Performing the role of compliance coordinator
• Internal performance monitoring and reporting 
• Performing management system inspections and internal audits 
• Communication with regulatory authorities on behalf of the client 
• Simply Certification or the consultant performing any consultancy or providing tools to clients even if not against the audited management system 
• Accident and incident investigation. 

3.0 Responsibilities  

All interested parties have a responsibility to ensure that impartiality is upheld or where a conflict arises, the risk is eliminated or minimised. This particularly refers to any persons involved in evaluation and certification activities as this is where the highest risk occurs.  

The Directors of Simply Certification are ultimately responsible for the implementation of this policy and overall commitment to impartiality.  

4.0 Policy Commitments  

Simply Certification shall: 

• Be responsible for the impartiality of its certification activities  
• Be accountable, maintain and retain authority for certification decision making 
• Ensure that all personnel who could influence certification activities act impartially 
• Require all personnel to reveal any conflicts of interest as defined in this policy 
• Take steps to eliminate or minimise any knows risks to impartiality and present its findings to the Impartiality Committee   
• Ensure its relationships with other bodies does not compromise impartiality 
• Ensure that activities are not marketed or offered as linked with the activities of a management system consultancy 
• Always act to respond to threats to its impartiality. 

Simply Certification shall not: 

• Allow commercial, financial or other pressures to compromise impartiality  
• Offer or provide management system consultancy as defined in this policy 
• Design, manufacture, install, distribute, or maintain a product, process, or service it has certified 
• Offer or provide internal audits to its certified clients 
• Outsource audits to a management system consultancy 
• Certify the quality management system of another certification body. 

Reviewed 19 July 2023