Outline five issues you would include in the response which you would give to a manager's request for Omission of a particular department from Audit.

At the opening meeting of the stage 2 certification audit, the Health & Safety manager informs you that a recent internal audit has found many non-conformities relating to issues in the laboratory.

Corrective action has already been planned. The manager therefore suggests that to audit the laboratory again would add no value and asks if you could delete this department from the audit plan and spend more time in the production area as there has been an increase in minor accidents recently and he is concerned that there may be serious problems.

Outline five issues you would include in the response which you would give to this request.

Ans:

The following are the five issues that I would include in response which I would give to this kind of request:

1)      Since it’s a 2^nd Stage certification audit, the implementation (Do phase) of the planned corrective action for the laboratory (support for the production or operation) and thus the audit of the lab must be on the plan to observe the imminent hazards are issues.

2)      The recent internal audit was a first party audit (what we call an internal audit) that determine whether the policies and practices are effective and achieving the intended objectives/ aim. But the “Certification audit” is a third party UKAS  certified bodies such as “Bureau Veritas” that checks the policies, plans, OH&S Management system, procedures, manuals are in compliance of ISO 45001 standards, depending on risk and complexity.

3)      The findings of the internal audit may be a glimpse of the issues, but major non-conformance can be based upon the “Risk based approach of ISO 45001” to come up with the risk and opportunities for the laboratory and suitable standards applicable.

4)      The lab department being a support department for operations or productions cannot be deleted from the audit plan as second stage checks the effectiveness of the plant to be implemented.

To carry out 2nd Stage audit the resources, competence of lab staff, awareness among them with effective communication and documented information must be assessed as per iso 45001 OH&S Standards and the relevant emergency preparedness requirement compliance, so lab department cannot be neglected or removed from the auditor man and would support the production to carry out operations safely & efficiently and thus must be on the plan.