September 2023
The revised LCA Code of Conduct launched on the 1st of July 2023 with one new requirement for Members. This will be informally discussed with Members at audit this registration year. It will then be an area of audit focus in the next registration year when the audit cycle comes to the code.
Many of our Members already have document control to comply with other QMS standards. The LCA requirement is not intended to be onerous and should be useful to LCA Members.
Why
The reason for this new Code requirement is to try and make sure that whenever a form, template or other document is used, it’s the current one – to have a process of document control. We’ve had a number of complaints to the LCA and failings at audit where one of the contributory factors has been the use of an out of date document.
For example, the use of old stock paper/carbon copy report pads that missed many requirements of the 2021 LCA standard. The new version was fine, but engineers in vans wanted to use up the old ones and this resulted in non-compliant work when checked at audit!
When
This requirement applies now and should be addressed as soon as possible.
How
Compliance with the Code of Conduct is not a one size fits all. In small organisations it may be proportionate to simply use a version number and date on documents, send out the latest version to staff and update a central list of document versions. For larger organisations a more detailed process might be needed to ensure the latest documents are included as templates in CRM systems and superseded versions of carbon copy reports, electronic reporting templates, etc. are not used.
What Will We Expect to See
The LCA Assessor will expect to see evidence that there is a system for ensuring the latest documents are in use. This is likely to be a procedure that describes the process of document control, with a summary of that procedure in the Statement of Compliance. We expect to see the output of that procedure in the evidence we inspect. Any report, quote, certificate, etc. should be on the latest version of that document at the time it was produced.