BS 25999 and certification

An update on certification activities linked to the upcoming publication of part two of BS 25999, the business continuity management British Standard.

By David Honour, editor, Continuity Central.

With the public consultation on BS 25999 part two now closed and formal publication fast approaching, the ability for organisations to achieve formal certification against BS 25999 will soon be a reality. The certification process will allow companies and organisations to independently demonstrate to others that they adhere to the standard and that their business continuity management processes follow the good practices set out in BS 25999 part one.

So far, approximately 120 companies and organisations, both large and small, are waiting for BSI (British Standards Institution) certification. Hundreds more have enquired about the process.

BSI says that it is seeing very strong 'supply chain assurance' pressure developing and that many large companies have approached the Institution for help in preparing for mandatory certification of their key suppliers. (This is where the customer organisation will insist that critical suppliers within its supply chain are formally certified against BS 25999). Such top-down pressure could have a profound affect on the business continuity market - forcing many suppliers to develop and/or formalise business continuity management systems for the first time. However, BSI is advising organisations that are thinking of doing this to involve BSI early in the process and to wait one year from introducing such a mandate before enforcing it. This will provide BSI with time to help and advise both the customer and supplier in how to work towards certification.

BSI has been undertaking certification audit trials with five companies to develop the audit process. The Institution says that it needs to see a good spread of different approaches to certification so that the audits can be tuned to different requirements: large, small, multi site or service based.

BSI will start auditing and issuing certificates on the day of publication of BS 25999, part two; which is currently scheduled for late October. BSI will have 50 auditors trained to audit to the standard on publication. 50 more are coming on stream early in 2008, when their training is complete.

Finally, BSI is warning about some organisations already claiming that they 'conform' or 'comply' with BS 25999. BSI says that it takes a dim view of such claims and feels that they should not be given any value or credence - only independent and repeatable certification audits to a defined standard are acceptable as evidence of conformity.

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•Date: 24th August 2007• Region: UK/World •Type: Article •Topic: BC standards
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