Impartiality Policy

• To establish FVR's impartiality policy: what it commits to, whom it binds and which conducts are forbidden, across every certification activity of both lines. The policy itself is stated in §3.

• Applies to all FVR personnel (internal employees, internal auditors, subcontracted external auditors, evaluators, committee members, shareholders, contractors) and all CB activities: scheme design, evaluation, decision, surveillance (FSA/SA), recertification (RA), transfer (TA), communication.

• FVR acts, and is perceived to act, impartially in all certification activities of persons (ISO/IEC 17024) and management systems (ISO/IEC 17021-1). Decisions are based solely on objective evidence, not influenced by commercial, financial, personal or political interests.
• FVR does not certify the management system of another certification body. The prohibition is absolute and does not depend on the standard, the scope or the relationship between the two. No safeguard permits an exception to this prohibition.
• — Fairness of the policies, and non-restriction of access (17024 line). FVR applies the same documented certification rules to every applicant, candidate and certificate holder: access is not conditioned on membership of any association or group, nor on nationality, residence, employer, gender, age, disability, or any condition unrelated to the competence certified. FVR does not impose unjustified economic or unrelated barriers to eligibility for certification, which is given effect by concrete provisions: there is no prerequisite of prior training with FVR — at levels 1 and 2 a route without the course is open, the module practices and the examination, and taking the FVR course neither is required nor weighs in the decision; the applicable subscription and re-examination fees are published under the certification service conditions; the assessment is remote, so no candidate travels or pays for a venue; the reasonable accommodation of the accessibility declaration removes barriers of disability or format at no cost; and each certification examination has two opportunities; after they are exhausted, the candidate may request a new examination under FVR_GD-POL-10-17024 §7.1. Reasonable accommodations are granted without reducing the applicable competence requirements.

• FVR and its personnel SHALL NOT perform:
• 1. Management system consultancy; FVR, every part of the same legal entity and every entity under FVR's organisational control neither offers nor provides it. Includes design, implementation, advice to close NCs, specific training to pass audits.
• 2. Internal audit of the certified or to-be-certified client's system.
• 3. Design or implementation of the client's system.
• 4. Promises of faster/easier/cheaper certification if a specific consultant is hired.
• 5. Joint marketing with consultants providing services to CB clients (see §6).
• 6. Acceptance of gifts, attentions, payments beyond the symbolic value defined in FVR_GD-POL-04.

• A person certified by FVR under line 17024 may also be associated with an organisation certified by FVR under line 17021. FVR assesses that relationship for impartiality; each certification is evaluated and decided separately, and the ERP prevents anyone who trained or assessed a candidate from deciding that candidate's certification.
• Being certified by FVR in one line neither benefits nor improves the outcome in the other, and vice versa. Each certification —of persons (ISO/IEC 17024) or of management systems (ISO/IEC 17021-1)— is assessed and decided separately, on its own evidence and against its own requirements. Holding, or applying for, an FVR certification in one line gives no advantage, preference or exemption from requirements in the other, does not shorten or simplify its assessment, and its outcome is neither evidence nor a decision criterion for the other. Whoever assesses or decides in one line does not take it into account, and FVR does not offer or advertise it as an advantage.

• FVR does not market or offer its certification activities as linked with any organisation that provides management system consultancy. This includes shared events, logos, branding, presentations and cross-references on social media.

• General Director — Approves this policy. Ensures resources. Reviews effectiveness annually.
• Safeguard Committee — Advises, escalates to the accreditation body where applicable (both lines: 17021 and 17024).
• Technical Director — Executes risk analysis, supervises operational compliance.
• Personnel — Declares conflicts, abstains from prohibited practices, reports pressure.

• Safeguard / Salvaguarda
• Annual impartiality risk analysis / Análisis anual de riesgo a la imparcialidad
• Impartiality Safeguard Committee (both certification lines) / Comité de Salvaguarda de la Imparcialidad (ambas líneas de certificación)
• Conflict declaration prior to each audit / Declaración de conflicto previa a cada auditoría
• Functional separation commercial/technical/decision / Separación funcional comercial/técnico/decisión
• Personnel protection against pressure / Protección al personal ante presiones
• Appellant/complainant protection / Protección al apelante/quejoso

• Self-interest — Financial/personal benefit to CB or personnel
• Self-review — Evaluating own work
• Familiarity — Close relationship with client
• Intimidation — Real or perceived pressure
• Advocacy — CB acting in client's defense

• FVR maintains a single hybrid Impartiality Safeguard Committee for both certification lines under FVR_IM-PR-02 and 17021-1 §5.2. The continuous risk analysis in FVR_IM-PR-01 and FVR_GD-MZ-04 is the Committee's standing input, not an alternative mechanism for the 17024 line.

• - Institutional website (public information)
• - New personnel induction
• - Contract with external auditors and suppliers
• - Public website per FVR_QA-PR-02

• FVR undertakes to:
• 1. Base every certification decision on objective evidence, never on the commercial relationship with the client, in both service lines.
• 2. Identify, analyse and document the threats to impartiality on a continuing basis, and keep them in the management system risk register with their safeguard and their owner.
• 3. Submit those threats to the Impartiality Committee, whose ruling on a safeguard is not overridden by Management.
• 4. Keep the decision separate from whoever performed the work: whoever audited or examined does not review or decide on their own file *(17021-1 §9.5; 17024 §9.4)*.
• 5. Declare relationships before each assignment, not afterwards — ownership, family, employment or commercial ties with a client or candidate.
• 6. Not let income concentration in one client become pressure on a decision, and treat that dependence as a financial risk in the register.
• 7. Make public how FVR safeguards its impartiality, so that the commitment can be checked from outside and not only asserted internally *(17021-1 §5.2)*.

• The threats governed by this policy are the impartiality and financial-dependence risks recorded in FVR_GD-MZ-04, each with its assigned treatment and owner.
• · Each threat carries its safeguard and its owner in the register; this policy does not duplicate them.
• · A materialised threat opens a corrective action with its effectiveness check, and the safeguard that failed is reviewed.
• The Committee's meeting frequency is governed by FVR_IM-PR-02 and is not duplicated in this policy.

Approvals / Aprobaciones