This derogation provides measures to temporarily perform main chain of custody audits remotely until December 31, 2020.
Due to the pandemic of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), vast areas of the world are subject to travel restrictions and many certification bodies have not been able to undertake physical onsite audits for main evaluations. Therefore, this derogation provides guidance on when certification bodies may perform main chain of custody evaluations remotely.
These measures will only be in place until December 31, 2020.
Update (June 14)
FSC-DER-2020-005 Undertaking CoC main evaluation audits remotely now includes the following changes:
- a new option for group /multi-site managers to integrate new members to their groups / multi-sites via remote audits – based on the same type of risk assessment as certification bodies are conducting;
- clarification on the scope of the second stage of a two-stage audit (in case of medium risk);
- a small change for clarification on the low risk scenario for primary and secondary producers/ processors – added in the annex of the derogation.
The document Chain of Custody Interpretations (INT-STD-40-003_05) was also updated to align with the changes in the derogation.