Policies

Granting or Refusing Certification

The decision as to whether or not to grant or renew a certificate is taken by a suitably qualified individual (the certification reviewer) who has not participated in the assessment process and has no commercial interest with the client site being certified. The certification reviewer will take into account relevant information when making the certification decision, including relevant audit reports, detail of corrective actions identified and taken in response to nonconformities raised during the audit process, and the recommendation of the audit team as to whether to grant/renew certification.

Following a positive decision to grant/renew certification, a draft certificate will be issued to the client and, once this is approved, the final certificate will be sent.

In the event that certification is not recommended (or in the event that the certification reviewer decides not to grant certification), the Project Manager will communicate this to the client along with the reasons and details of next steps (generally, a further assessment will be required in this situation).

The client may appeal against any certification decision; details of the appeals process are available on the ERM CVS website.

Suspension or Withdrawal of Certification

ERM CVS may suspend or withdraw a client’s certification in certain circumstances. Typically, the request for certificate suspension or withdrawal will result from:

• Breach of contract by the client, including the non-payment of fees;
• Persistent or serious failure by the client's certified management system to meet certification requirements, including requirements for the effectiveness of the management system;
• The certified client failing to allow surveillance or recertification audits to be conducted at the required frequencies; or
• Failure to implement effective corrective and preventive actions
• Failure to comply with ERM CVS’ Terms and Conditions of Business.
• The certified client voluntarily requesting a suspension.
• The certified client does not maintain an active legally enforceable contract with ERM CVS.

If a decision is made to withdraw or suspend a certificate due to failures to meet certification requirements then the Project Manager or the Partner in Charge will contact the client to inform them of this and state the reasons. Prior to withdrawing the certificate, the client will generally be allowed a period for rectification, during which time the certificate will be considered suspended. Under suspension, the client's management system certification is temporarily invalid. During the suspension period, the organisation must cease any promotion of its certification. The time allowed should reflect the seriousness of the failure, but typically should not exceed 6 months.

If it becomes necessary to withdraw the certificate, the client will be notified in writing including a request for immediate return of the certificate and immediate cessation of the use of the certification mark.

Changing the Scope of Certification

In response to a request for a change to the scope of a certification already granted, the Project Manager will undertake a review of the requested change and determine any audit activities necessary to decide whether or not the change may be granted. An extension to the scope of certification may necessitate further onsite auditing activity, which may be conducted in conjunction with a surveillance audit.

ERM CVS will provide the status of a client’s certificate on request to the Accreditation and System Manager. This will indicate whether a certificate issued by ERM CVS is current, suspended or has been withdrawn. Our process on granting, suspending, withdrawing or restoring a certification is available here.

If you are a client of ERM CVS and have a disagreement or dispute concerning your certification or verification statement, which you have not been able to resolve through your Client Account Manager or Partner in Charge, then you may appeal in writing to the Accreditation and System Manager.  

For more details see our dedicated page here.

ERM Certification and Verification Services (ERM CVS) is the ERM Group's global provider of independent certification, validation, verification, assurance and training services. We believe in the principle of openness, whilst respecting the strict confidentiality of information derived from our clients. 

We recognise that it is necessary for us to gain privileged access to information needed to carry out our assessments adequately, and that it is essential we keep confidential any proprietary information about our clients. 

Mechanisms have been established to safeguard the confidentiality of the information created or obtained during our certification, validation & verification, and training activities at all levels of our organisation, including our Management, external bodies or individual assessors or trainers acting on our behalf. 

The key principles which underpin our mechanisms for safeguarding confidential information are: 

• All personnel involved in our certification, validation & verification and training activities (including contractors or other external organisations or individuals acting on our behalf) shall keep confidential all information obtained or created during our assessments, training delivery or other activities. 
• All client information, except for information that is made publicly available by our clients, shall be considered confidential.
• When we intend to place client information in the public domain, we will inform the client in advance of our intentions.
• We will not disclose confidential information about a particular client or individual without the consent of the client or individual concerned. 
• Where we are required by law to release confidential information to a third party, unless regulated by law, we will notify the client or individual concerned in advance of the information provided.
• Information about a client from sources other than the client (such as regulators and complainants) will be treated as confidential in line with our policy on confidentiality. 
• We have in place arrangements, equipment and facilities to ensure that all client information (e.g., documents, data and records in electronic or hard copy form) remains secure and accessible only by authorised persons at all times. 
• Where we need to make confidential information available to other parties such as an accreditation body, we will inform affected clients of this action. 
• Where a Certification or Verification scheme requires us to publish certain information, we will publish information in accordance with the scheme owner’s requirements, which the customer accepts as a requirement of the scheme.

The policy can be downloaded here.

ERM Certification and Verification Services (ERM CVS) is the independent ERM Group entity dedicated to conformity assessment, validation, verification, assurance and training services.  

To fulfil our purpose, we, ERM CVS, must inspire confidence and trust to stakeholders that we operate considering impartiality, confidentiality and risks, acting with professional care, competence and responsibility, being open and responsive to demands, enhancing our reputation. 

Being impartial, and been perceived as impartial by relevant stakeholders, is a fundamental element that governs our decisions, actions and beliefs, supporting us to operate with independence, neutrality, fairness, free of conflicts of interests, bias or pre-judgment.   

Commitment to Impartiality    

ERM CVS Senior Leadership is committed to: 

• leading by example, taking positive actions to improve our reputation, embedding the importance of impartiality in our culture, beliefs, decisions and actions.
• understanding threats related to impartiality, including self-interest, self-review, familiarity, and intimidation risks. 
• systematically reviewing our impartiality risks, considering our business context, relationships and activities, managing potential conflicts, to continuously improve our internal controls.
• assessing our practices, increasing our interactions and facilitating external oversight review of our impartiality processes.
• educating our teams to understand the concept and importance of impartiality. 
• engaging and empowering our teams to execute projects, contracts and engagements with impartiality and objectivity, not allowing commercial, financial or other type of pressures that can compromise our decisions. We empower our team to stop, when our impartiality is jeopardized.
• welcoming suggestions and concerns raised from relevant stakeholders related to impartiality. We investigate and we take actions proportionally to the magnitude of the risks identified. 

ERM CVS & ERM Relationship Management  

ERM CVS Global Managing Director/Managing Partner is ultimately responsible for ensuring that ERM CVS relationship with ERM Group promotes our independence, reputation, governance and impartiality. This responsibility includes:  

• ensuring ERM CVS is aligned with ERM culture, beliefs and behaviours, fostering positive collaboration and communication where appropriate, and maintaining adequate level of independence where necessary, to protect our reputation.  
• ensuring that ERM CVS is financially stable, balancing the provision of value to shareholders and investing in our business to increase our impact, to improve our portfolio and to expand our team and competence. 
• explaining the rules and benefits to secure ERM CVS impartiality and independence position.
• managing potential conflicts of interest, ringfencing impartiality threats, and reducing risks to acceptable levels.
• ensuring ERM CVS Partners and Directors are not responsible to lead ERM operational business units, projects, contracts and engagements, and vice-versa.
• ensuring ERM CVS team retains full ownership and independence to contract, to execute and to take decisions related to its projects and engagements.

ERM CVS’s impartiality policy can be downloaded here.

Certification and verification from ERM CVS is regarded as an outstanding mark of excellence in EHS management. 
 
We have established detailed requirements and guidance for the use of our certification marks and any associated accreditation marks that are provided to our management systems-certified clients. This information is provided to our certified clients and is available here. 
 
Verification and Validation statements must be used in their entirety, and the ERM CVS logo and/or accreditation marks are not available for promotion of these statements.