Beijing meeting agrees to move ISO 22301 forward

After some disagreements within the committee responsible for developing ISO 22301 (the international business continuity standard) a meeting in Beijing has cleared the way to move forward to Final Draft International Standard (FDIS).

Next steps

The FDIS stage requires a two month consultation period where comments may be submitted, however only minor changes can be made at this time.

Once these comments have been dealt with and whatever changes agreed and made, the final document will be published.

Timescales
It is realistic to expect that the two months consultation will complete by the end of February and then further consideration will continue through Q2 2012.

By the middle of 2012 the standard should be available.

Implications

On his blog, Dave Austin, a project team leader for ISO 22301, discusses some of the implications that the move to FDIS has:

• For countries with no existing national standard, they can adopt the ISO immediately. For those that have existing standards it is slightly more complicated. Those in the UK must consider what happens to BS25999-2. There is a working presumption that this will be withdrawn, however BS25999 is in use and companies have existing certifications, and it is written into US legislation. So exactly when BS25999-2 is withdrawn has still to be discussed and formally agreed.

• Consideration also needs to be given as to whether BS25999-1 should be withdrawn in consequence: the guidance to accompany 22301 (ISO 22313) is following close behind but is not yet published so again there is a question of timing, and indeed there is a question of whether the UK wishes to retain BS25999-1 in some form, perhaps through updating and evolution incorporating key points from the various PDs and PAS200 that have been published since.

• Companies with existing certifications will be able to migrate to ISO 22301 certification and there is an established process for this. However, it is clear that there is a need for more information about the details of this and now that we have some certainty of progression to publication, this is discussion that can be opened with the relevant organizations.

•Date: 15th November 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: BC standards

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