Welcome

by Olivier Peyrat, Chair of ISO/CASCO.

It gives me great pleasure to introduce the first edition of the new ISO/CASCO eNewsletter. Its objective is to keep the conformity assessment community up-to-date with ISO/CASCO developments and related activities. The newsletter will initially be distributed every four months. The content will be kept concise with links provided for those who wish additional information.

Although initially the newsletter is intended for ISO/CASCO members, the aim is to make it a valuable information source for all interested in conformity assessment.

We would appreciate your feedback on the type of content you would like to see in future editions (see contact details at the end of the page). Finally, you are welcome to forward this eNewsletter to your contacts. We hope that you will wish to receive the eNewsletter regularly. A subscription link is available at the bottom and you can also subscribe on the ISO Website.

You are receiving the first issue of this eNewsletter because you are involved in the activities of ISO/CASCO.

If you want to receive the next issues, subscribe to the ISO/CASCO eNewsletter

Contents

• Policy groups
• Working groups
• ISO/CASCO liaisons
• General
• ISO/CASCO diary
• In the next issue...

Policy groups

Chairman's Policy and Coordination Group (CPC)
The CPC held its 11th meeting in April 2009. During this meeting it tackled different questions amongst which:

The ISO/CASCO interpretation process. ISO/CASCO has implemented an interpretation process for all ISO/CASCO generated ISO/IEC International Standards. An interpretation can be submitted by any National Member Body or A liaison with the aim of having a final interpretation within three months. Two questions are currently being processed and the result will be posted on the ISO/CASCO Webpage.

IAF/ISO Action Plan. This project is of particular importance to the ISO community because it has been set up to improve accredited certification to ISO management standards (such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 22000). The objective is to have a better oversight of certification to ISO management system standards that are delivered by certification bodies accredited either by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF), or the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC). An article in the September-October 2009 issue of ISO Management Systems magazine describes the IAF/ISO Action Plan.

Strategic Alliance and Regulatory Group (STAR)
The STAR group has met three times since its creation in 2008. Its membership has increased and now consist of 12 ISO/CASCO P members, six A liaisons (Codex Alimentarius Commission, IAF, IEC, IFAN, ILAC and IQNet), and four special members (European Commission, IATF, IRIS and UNECE). The visibility of this group is growing and other organizations have expressed their interest in it.

The STAR group has provided input and ideas for the next ISO/CASCO workshop (more details in the next ISO/CASCO eNewsletter) which will address the topic of global supply chains and traceability.

Finally, the STAR group will develop a communication strategy to better "promote the ISO/IEC standards and guides developed by ISO/CASCO and establish two-way communication with organizations external to ISO and IEC, especially those representing industry and regulators.

For general information on CASCO policy groups, please visit this link.

Working groups

WG 21, Third-party certification auditing of management systems
WG 21, co-convened by Alister Dalrymple (AFNOR) and Randy Dougherty (ANSI), is mandated to complement the existing requirements of ISO/IEC 17021:2006 with respect to third party auditing and the management of competence.

The WG met in early June 2009 to review the comments on the ISO/IEC Committee Draft CD 2 17021-2 ballot and agreed to process the document to Draft International Standard (DIS) stage. The intent is to merge the two parts of the document, after a transition period, further to the systematic review of ISO/IEC 17021:2006 in 2010.

WG 27, Guidance for drafting normative documents suitable for use for conformity assessment
WG 27, convened by Bill Cunningham (SCC), met on 2 April 2009 to review the comments on the ISO/IEC DIS 17007 ballot and agreed to process the document to Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) stage. The standard is planned for publication by October 2009.

WG 28, Proficiency testing
WG 28, convened by Dan Tholen (ANSI), will meet end June 2009 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, hosted by ANAB, to review the comments received at DIS ballot of ISO/IEC 17043. The intent is to proceed to FDIS and publish the standard in early 2010.

WG 29, Certification of products, services and processes
WG 29, convened by Mario Wittner (IRAM), is in charge of the revision of ISO/IEC Guide 65. The WG 29 is composed of more than 65 experts: its last meeting was in April 2008 and the next is scheduled for the end of June 2009.

ISO/IEC 17065 is now in its 6th version of the Working Draft (WD 6) and the next step will be a Committee Draft which is expected after the June meeting.

WG 30, Certification of persons
This new WG in charge of revising ISO/IEC 17024:2003 had its first meeting in February 2009. It is convened by Cynthia Woodley (ANSI) and its next meeting is scheduled for the 22-24 July 2009. More information on this WG will be given in the next issue of the ISO/CASCO eNewsletter.

WG 31, Inspection
WG 31 in charge of revising ISO/IEC 17020:1998 had its first meeting in the first week of May 2009. The WG has two Convenors: Chiew Wan Tan (CEOC), and Marcus Schmid (DIN).

The meeting resulted in a first Working Draft (WD 1) and the next meeting will be held from on 22-24 September 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland. During this meeting, the comments received from the W G 31 experts on ISO/IEC 17020 WD 1 will be resolved.

For general information on active ISO/CASCO working groups, please visit this link.

ISO/CASCO liaisons

Status of the Liaisons with ISO/CASCO
As of today, the following 15 stakeholder organizations have A liaison status with ISO/CASCO:

• Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC)
• Eurolab
• European Organization for Quality (EOQ)
• Independent International Organisation for Certification Limited (IIOC)
• International Accreditation Forum (IAF)
• International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM)
• The International Certification Network (IQNet)
• International Confederation of Inspection and Certification Organisations (CEOC)
• International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
• International Federation of Inspection Agencies (IFIA)
• International Federation of Standards Users (IFAN)
• International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC)
• International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML)
• International Personnel Certification Association (IPC)
• International Union of Independent Laboratories (UILI)
• ITU-T - Telecommunication Standardization Sector

ISO/CASCO is currently processing an application from the Latin American Institute for Quality Assurance (INLAC). This organization already has A liaison status with ISO Technical Committee ISO/TC 176 (quality management) and ISO/TC 207 (environmental management). The vote closes in July 2009.

For general information on organizations in liaison with ISO/CASCO, please visit this link.

General

ISO/CASCO membership
 • P-members 73
 • O-members 36
(As of 22 June 2009)

Results of the last systematic reviews
ISO/IEC Guides 23, 27, 28, 53 and 67 (related to product certification) have been subject to a systematic review vote and were all confirmed at close of vote on 16 March 2009.

Four ISO/CASCO documents are currently undergoing a vote for systematic review:
 • ISO/IEC Guide 60:2004 (Ed 2)
 • ISO/IEC Guide 68:2002
 • ISO/IEC 17030:2003
 • ISO/IEC 17040:2005

The voting period will end on 15 September 2009.

Conformity assessment standards in support of market surveillance
In 2008, ISO/CASCO initiated a series of workshops to be held in conjunction with its plenary meetings. Last year, the first workshop addressed the topic of market surveillance.

It allowed a fruitful exchange of experience and practice in this field.
Full information about this event is available at http://iso.org/cascoworkshop2008, and this will be updated in the light of future actions by ISO/CASCO in this area..

Who are the ISO/CASCO Secretariat?

From left to right: Stefan Marinkovic (Project Manager), Joyce Bleeker (Senior Project Manager), Sean MacCurtain (Head), Madeleine Emorine (Assistant)

ISO/CASCO diary

In the next issue...