Q17: During the COVID-19 crisis, if a CAB conducts a part of the initial certification of a management system with remote audit activities and plans to complete the remainder of the audit onsite within six months, is it possible to issue the certificate at the conclusion of the remote audit activities?

A17: No, a certificate can only be issued if the CAB is able to evaluate all the applicable requirements of ISO/IEC 17021-1 (9.3.1.2 Stage 1 and 9.3.1.3 Stage 2) through a complete and effective audit of the client’s management system, followed by a successful review and decision making activities. However, this could change for specific schemes.