Scrutiny Committee

Certification Scrutiny Committee

The Certification Scrutiny Committee (CSC) consists of a group of independent and impartial experts who oversee our work and report to the Soil Association Certification Board.

Members are selected through a rigorous  application process and  join the committee for a term of 3 years, which can be renewed for a further 3 years. In exceptional circumstances this can be extended to a maximum of 9 years.

CSC members are stakeholders representing one or more of these key interests:

• Licensee- Forestry
• Licensee- Organic
• Non-licensed operator- Forestry
• Non licensed operator- Organic
• Retailer, brandholder, manufacturer or user of the certification logos
• Consumer (must be a member of a consumer organisation)
• Professional or academic organisation
• Certification expert
• Inspection/audit expert
• Governmental or regulatory body
• Scheme owner
• Industry/ Sector Expert
• NGO

Each committee member is bound by a strict confidentiality agreement and remains impartial.  

At its bi-annual meetings the CSC’s role is to:

• safeguard and ensure the impartiality of the Soil Association Certification’s processes
• ensure we are operating to the high level of integrity expected of us
• review our activities, ensuring we operate in accordance with the requirements of ISO 17065, ISO 14065, ISO 17029 and ISO 17021 (International standard for product certification)
• maintain oversight, and ensure the effectiveness, of our quality management system

To achieve this, the CSC reviews our work in several ways. These include interviewing Soil Association Certification staff; selecting and reviewing a sample of our certification decisions, complaint and certification files; examining sponsorship selection; and checking that our top 100 fee payers are treated impartially.

The certification schemes that the CSC reviews include:

• Soil Association organic
• GB/NI organic
• Canadian Organic Regime (COR)
• Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS)
• COSMOS organic and natural
• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
• Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC)
• Woodland Carbon Code

The Chair of the CSC is James Simpson, and the Deputy Chair is Finn Cottle.

For more details of committee terms and members (names are available upon request), please contact us on 0117 914 2406 or e-mail: cert@soilassociation.org