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Impartiality Committee Terms of Reference

Terms of Reference of the QA Assessor Impartiality Committee. Reference: QA-CB-GOV-002 | ISO/IEC 17024:2026 clause 4.3 | Version: 2.0 | Approved by the Director: September 2026

1. Purpose

To provide independent oversight of the impartiality of QA Assessor’s certification activities, including the separation between certification and training, and to advise the Director.

2. Composition

The Committee has an independent chair with no financial interest in QA Assessor and at least three further members drawn from the interests affected by certification: employers and users of audit services, certified persons, and, where appropriate, the training community and regulators. No single interest group holds a majority. Members are not employees of QA Assessor, hold no financial or personal interest in QA Assessor’s training activities, and take no certification decisions. Members are appointed by the Director for two years, renewable once, and sign a confidentiality, impartiality and conflict-of-interest declaration on appointment and each year.

3. Duties

  1. Review the Impartiality Policy, the analysis of threats to impartiality and the impartiality and risk register at least yearly, and whenever a new activity, relationship or supplier is introduced.
  2. Review the separation of training from verification, assessment and decision, including the Approved Training Provider programme and the rule that a trainer takes no part in the applications of people they trained.
  3. Review complaints, appeals, suspension and withdrawal statistics, and decision consistency, for signs of bias or undue influence.
  4. Advise on new schemes, scheme changes and any matter that could affect confidence in QA Assessor’s certification.
  5. Consider Stage 2 complaints referred to it under the Complaints and Appeals Policy.
  6. Report in writing to the Director after each meeting. If the Director does not act on a recommendation, the Committee may record its dissent in the management review record and, for a matter that undermines impartiality, may require the Director to inform the Committee of the action taken within 30 days.

4. Meetings and records

The Committee meets at least twice a year, online, and additionally when called by the Chair or the Certification Manager in response to an identified threat to impartiality. Quorum is a majority of members including the chair or a member acting as chair. Minutes are kept and filed in the management review record. Committee members receive the information they need, including anonymised case files, under confidentiality.

5. Review of these terms

These Terms of Reference are reviewed yearly by the Committee and approved by the Director. The current version is published on this page.