IAF TC decision concerning transition 9001/14001:2015

During the mid-term IAF meeting in Frankfurt in April 2018, the technical committee of the IAF (IAF TC) has taken the following decision (Meeting and Minute reference: Frankfurt 12.7):

“It was confirmed that on 15 September 2018 all ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004 certificates will expire and will no longer be valid. When transition activities are successfully completed prior to 15 September 2018, the expiry date of the new certification can be based on the expiry date of the existing certification. The issue date on a new certificate shall be on or after the certification decision.
If the certification body has not completed the transition audit or the certification body is unable to verify the implementation of corrections and corrective actions for any major nonconformity prior to 15 September 2018, then certification to the new versions shall not be recommended. The client shall be informed and the consequences shall be explained i.e their certification has expired and is no longer valid.
Following 15 September 2018, the certification body can issue certification to the new versions within 6 months (15 March 2019) provided that the audit process has been initiated by 15 September 2018 and the outstanding transition activities are completed (by 15 March 2019). The effective date on the certificate shall be on or after the certification decision and the expiry date shall be based on prior certification cycle.
If the transition audit process has not been initiated by 15 September 2018 and/or not completed by 15 March 2019 an initial audit shall be conducted. The effective date on the certificate shall be the date of the certification decision.”

In order to apply for the 6 months rule above, it should be noted that “provided that the audit process has been initiated” means that a significant portion of the on-site audit processes (ISO/IEC 17021-1, para 9.4) should have been completed prior to September 15, 2018, but due to unforeseen circumstances the full audit process could not yet be completed or a decision could not yet be taken.
This rule also applies to ISO 9001:2015 based schemes.