AIC Assurance Schemes to start “Remote Auditing”

Following the decision taken in March to suspend auditing of all AIC Trade Assurance Schemes, the certification bodies have been working with AIC staff to develop a new approach to enable certification of participants to continue.

AIC is pleased to announce that Kiwa Agrifood and Lloyds Register are now in a position to commence remote auditing across AIC Trade Assurance Schemes from Tuesday 14^th April. The detail of how the auditing will operate for each scheme will be communicated over the coming days as auditors are also trained to use the new systems developed. Participants will be required to pre-load some existing information their assurance documentation as well as have the ability to have an on-line connection to allow remote access to systems and processes.

There will be some limitations on which aspects of each scheme can be audited remotely, in which case shorter on site follow up visits may be required when restrictions are lifted.

AIC and the certification bodies believe that restarting auditing in this way is in the best interests of the agrisupply industry as a whole, but we also recognise that individual business circumstances will vary. 

Commenting on this development John Kelley, Managing Director of AIC Services said

“The certification bodies have worked hard to develop new technology to support remote auditing – this will enable existing standards to remain in place, whilst taking into account the current lockdown imposed by the Government to control the spread of Coronavirus”

If participants are contacted to arrange a remote audit but due to staff shortages or other issues relating to Coronavirus they feel unable to host the audit, they should contact the relevant certification body to discuss their concerns.

ENDS

About AIC

AIC is the UK trade association representing the agricultural supply chain sectors of Arable Marketing, Crop Protection and Agronomy, Feed, Fertiliser and Seeds, since its inception in 2003. In all, AIC represents members responsible for some £9 billion of farm trade. A significant part of its work is political lobbying and influencing as well as supporting members with technical information.

AIC Services, which is the professional services arm of AIC manages a range of services, including Assurance Schemes recognised by UK government as essential tools to underpin feed & food safety alongside fertiliser security.  Currently these include: 

www.agindustries.org.uk

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