Suspension of certification

Certification is suspended, withdrawn or terminated to prevent or minimise the harm that non-conforming products could cause.

Decisions to suspend, resume, withdraw or terminate certification are taken by the head of the body, while the auditors analyse the situation, prepare the decisions and implement them within the time needed.

If non-conformities are found during surveillance or in other circumstances, the body decides which measures to apply. These measures are:

1. keeping the certification in force under conditions set by the body (for example, enhanced surveillance or additional testing);
2. reducing the scope of certification to exclude non-conforming product types;
3. suspending the certification until the client takes action to correct the non-conformities;
4. withdrawing the certification.

A certificate of conformity is suspended or withdrawn if at least one of the following applies:

1. by mutual agreement between the body and the applicant because production has stopped or for other reasons (on a free-form application from the applicant);
2. following negative surveillance results for the certified product;
3. the applicant removes the causes of the non-conformity through corrective actions agreed with the body and confirms compliance at the repeat surveillance without additional testing;
4. where the certified product does not meet the technical regulations: negative test results during surveillance; changes to the technical regulations or to the test method without notifying the body; changes to the design, composition, configuration, production arrangements or technology.

A certificate of conformity may be suspended for up to one month.

Certification may be terminated for the following reasons:

1. the client gives notice that the manufacturer has stopped supplying and supporting the certified product;
2. the certificate has expired and the client has not asked to extend it.

A certificate of conformity is withdrawn if:

1. the identified non-conformity cannot be corrected;
2. the applicant fails to meet its financial obligations to the body under their contract;
3. the applicant has not taken the necessary action while the certificate was suspended;
4. the applicant does not wish to extend the certificate of conformity;
5. production has stopped (or moved to another facility) or the company has been wound up.

The decision to suspend or withdraw a certificate is taken by the head of the body and documented using the forms in Annexes 2, 3 or 8 to the Surveillance work instruction, with a corresponding entry in the state technical regulation register.

Within three working days of the decision, the body informs the applicant, users, the authorised technical regulation body and other interested parties in writing, by express post or courier.

The body resumes a suspended certification when:

1. the identified non-conformities have been corrected within the set deadlines and the certificate holder has provided the body with supporting documents;
2. surveillance carried out by the body after the client refused it or refused to pay for it has produced positive results.

The decision to resume certification is documented in line with Annex 4 to the Surveillance work instruction.

If a suspended certification is reinstated, the body updates the official certification documents and public information so that they clearly show the product is still certified. If reducing the scope was a condition of reinstatement, the corresponding changes are made.

The scope of certification may be reduced at the initiative of the certificate holder, or of the body based on surveillance results or information that the certified product no longer meets the requirements checked during certification.

If the certificate holder initiates a reduction of scope, it must send the body an official request naming the product type or requirements to be excluded. On that basis the head of the body decides to reduce the scope, and a new certificate is issued in place of the current one.