Auditing requirements
We use independent audits to provide assurance that Accredited Certificate Providers (ACPs) create certificates in accordance with the relevant legislation.
Your audit requirements are specified in your Accreditation Notice and may include an audit of any of the following matters:
- The creation of certificates
- Compliance with any conditions of accreditation
- Compliance with the requirements of the relevant legislation governing creation of certificates.
The audit requirements of each accreditation are based on a risk assessment, which considers the nature of the calculation method, the compliance history of the ACP (or applicant) and the proposed number of certificates involved.
We determine your audit requirements at the time of accreditation and may make risk-based adjustments to them from time to time. The Compliance Guide – ACPs explains why we may adjust these requirements, while the Application for Accreditation Guide – ACPs explains how we set your initial requirements.
What you need to do to conduct an audit
Before the audit commences, you must first engage an auditor from our list of approved auditors. Approved auditors can be selected from the members of the Audit Services Panel.
You must provide all information and assistance necessary to the auditor. You are also responsible for the costs of audits.
Once you have engaged an auditor, you initiate an audit in your TESSA account and nominate the type of audit (post registration/pre-registration/spot audit), accreditation ID, audit company and lead auditor and certificate batches (post registration audit only. You must also complete the following documents using our approved templates and submit them through TESSA:
- Part A of the Detailed Scope of Works (DSW) submission form
- a List of sites (pre-registration audits only)
