A transfer is the recognition of an existing and valid management system certification, granted by another accredited CAB by Advanced Certification for the purpose of issuing its own certification.
Only certifications which are covered by an accreditation of an IAF MLA signatory shall be eligible for transfer. Organisations holding certifications that are not covered by such accreditation shall be treated as new clients; the contract reviewer shall check the validity of the current certificate and record the results of this check on the client details section of the contract review sheet.
Prior to transferring a certification Advanced Certification conduct a pre-transfer review, usually this is completed by remote review of records, the results of this are recorded on the pre-transfer review report and includes checks of the following:
1. Confirmation that the client’s certified activities falls within the accredited scope of Advanced Certification; 2. The reasons that the client has for seeking a transfer; 3. That all sites wishing to transfer certification hold an accredited certification; 4. That the scope of the application is identical to the scope of the current accredited certification; 5. That the accredited certification is valid in terms of duration; 6. Where practical, the validity of certification and the status of outstanding non conformity is verified with the issuing certification body unless it has ceased trading; 7. The company is not subject to any detrimental current engagement with regulatory bodies in respect of legal compliance. 8. That the previous CAB reports are available, demonstrate that an effective management system is in place and that any outstanding non-conformity has been resolved; 9. That visits have been carried out as per the audit program. 10. That the company is effectively reviewing and responding to complaints
Should it not be possible to meet all of the above criteria then a second stage pre-transfer review (an on-site visit) shall be carried out.
If the current certification has less than 12 months validity then a re-certification shall be completed by Advanced Certification at the next visit. If there is more than 12 months validity remaining, the next visit shall be a surveillance audit.
