ISO-14001-Lead-Auditor Questions and Answers

According to ISO 19011:2018 Clause 6.4.3 (Conducting audit activities):

Conducting audit activities includes:

Holding opening meetings (A).

Collecting and verifying information.

Generating audit findings.

Determining audit conclusions (F).

Assigning work (B) and determining feasibility (E) occur during audit planning.

Report distribution (C) and corrective action verification (D) occur after audit completion.

As per ISO 14001:2015 Clause 10 (Improvement) and Clause 9 (Performance Evaluation):

The 'Check' phase includes activities that evaluate performance, such as:

Clause 9.1:

“The organization shall monitor, measure, analyze and evaluate its environmental performance.”

Clause 10.2:

“When a nonconformity occurs, the organization shall react to the nonconformity, evaluate the need for corrective action.”

Management review is part of the 'Act' phase (Clause 9.3), and Environmental Policy (Clause 5.2) belongs to 'Plan'.

According to ISO 14001:2015:

Clause 4.2:

The organization must understand the needs and expectations of interested parties, which includes regulatory bodies and applicable legal requirements. Legal expertise may be necessary to fully assess this.

Clause 9.1.2:

The organization must evaluate compliance obligations, which requires understanding applicable legal requirements.

Legal compliance evaluation often requires specialized legal or regulatory knowledge, especially in highly regulated sectors like pharmaceuticals.

According to ISO 19011:2018 Clause 3.11 (Audit findings) and Clause 6.4.10:

Audit findings can be conformity, nonconformity, or opportunity for improvement.

A conformity simply confirms that the requirements have been met no further action is required from the auditee.

Nonconformities require corrective actions.

Opportunities for improvement may trigger voluntary action but not mandatory response.

Diverging opinions are handled during the audit but don't require post-audit response unless linked to nonconformity.

According to ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015 Clause 9.3.2.1:

Stage 1 includes:

Reviewing management system documentation (E).

Identifying areas of concern that could become nonconformities at Stage 2 (C).

Evaluating readiness for Stage 2, but not making certification decisions (D).

Stage 1 focuses on preparedness; Stage 2 evaluates full implementation (F).

Onsite requirement (B) is generally true but flexibility is permitted per IAF MD rules.

According to ISO 19011:2018 Clause 3.5 (Second-party audit):

Second-party audits are conducted directly by customers on their suppliers for contractual or commercial purposes.

There is no obligation to inform or involve the certification body in such audits unless contractually required.

Certification body audit reports are confidential to the certified organization and the certification body.

From ISO 19011:2018:

Clause 5.4.3:

“The audit plan should consider the potential impact on the auditee's processes during audit activities to minimize disruption.”

Clause 5.2 and 5.3:

“The audit programme frequency should be based on the significance of the environmental aspects, past audit results, changes, and risks.”

Internal auditors auditing their own work violates auditor impartiality (Clause 4.4.2 - Auditor Independence).

Second-party audits are customer-supplier audits, not certification body audits (Clause 3.7 - Audit Types).

EMS auditors must consider the organization's preparedness for emergencies (ISO 14001:2015 Clause 8.2).