Transition period of ISO standards extended

In light of the impact of the Covid 19 crisis on the conduct of on-site audits, the IAF has extended the transition periods for all recently revised ISO management system standards by six months each. The modified transition periods affect ISO standards including ISO 45001:2018 for occupational safety and health (OHS) and ISO 50001:2018 for energy management.

This information about the changed transition periods of ISO standards comes from a response on the IAF (International Accreditation Forum) FAQ page dated April 3, 2020 (with update on April 11 regarding the use of remote audits). The measure to extend transition periods in connection with the revision of the affected ISO standards is primarily due to the fact that regular on-site audit activities will not be possible for the foreseeable future, or only at a greatly reduced level, because of the current situation. The requirement for compliance with the previously published deadlines was obviously considered inappropriate under these circumstances.

NEW TRANSITIONAL DEADLINES FOR ISO STANDARDS

1. FROM BS OHSAS 18001 TO ISO 45001

The original regulation in the OHS area stipulated that all BS OHSAS 18001 certificates would lose their validity on March 11, 2021, and that the transition to ISO 45001 must be completed. Note: DAkkS had in the meantime postponed this date by three weeks to March 31, 2021.

The new expiration date for the old BS-OHSAS certificates has now been set at September 30, 2021.

Also new is the deadline indicating until when OHS management systems can still be audited against BS OHSAS 18001. This date has been moved from March 11, 2020 to September 30, 2020.

This date has been changed from March 11, 2020 to September 30, 2020.

2. FROM ISO 50001:2011 TO ISO 50001:2018.

For the ISO 50001 energy management standard, the deadline for certificates under the old 2011 version was August 20, 2021.

The new expiration date for the old ISO 50001 certificates now falls on February 20, 2022.

The deadline for auditing against this old version has already expired on February 20, 2020. This deadline was also not subsequently extended. Since this date, only audits according to the new version, ISO 50001:2018, are possible.