One of the key changes to the ISO 9001 standard when it was up-issued in 2008 was the inclusion of personal data within the context of ‘customer property’ (clause 7.5.4).  That clause requires ‘organisations to exercise care with customer property whilst it is under the organisation’s control or being used by the organisation’.  The change was welcomed by many after some very well publicised ‘lap top left on train’ incidents.

Significant numbers of senior managers are not interested in internal company audits of their quality management systems – even though they can be hugely valuable in identifying potential business improvements.

That was the surprising result of a survey carried out when it was revealed that 30 per cent of senior managers are indifferent or negative to their own in-house audits.

There are two enlightening documents which ensure that we don't leave judging the character of an auditor to chance, or personal opinion: the international standards ISO 19011:2011 and ISO 17021:2015.