Terms of reference

The Impartiality Committee shall:

• provide feedback during the development of policies and schemes relating to impartiality of BRE Global activities;
• counteract any tendency on the part of BRE Global to allow commercial or other considerations to prevent the consistent delivery of services in an impartial manner;
• advise on matters affecting confidence in assurance, including openness and public perception; and
• conduct a review, at least once annually, of the impartiality of the audit, certification and decision-making processes of BRE Global.   by:
• having oversight of relevant processes and policies to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, that BRE Global is:
  • acting independently and impartially [¹]
  • operating impartiality processes correctly;
  • treating customers fairly;- where appropriate, make suggestions for the improvement of policies, processes and procedures on matters related to impartiality.
• reviewing the results of internal and external audits, management reviews, complaints, appeals, certificate suspensions and withdrawals in order to ensure that procedures are administered in an impartial, timely and non-discriminatory manner;   ¹ Impartiality is defined as the presence of objectivity, where: Objectivity is understood to mean that conflicts of interest do not exist, or are resolved so as not to adversely influence the activities of the body. Other terms that are useful in conveying the element of impartiality are independence, freedom from conflicts of interest, freedom from bias, freedom from prejudice, neutrality, fairness, open- mindedness, even-handedness, detachment and balance.    Where the Impartiality Committee feels that there are significant impartiality issues that it has been unable to address through the normal processes of working with BRE Global then it has the right to escalate these issues through the BRE Group Risk and Audit Committee and where appropriate ultimately to take action independently of the BRE Group management (for example by informing the accreditation bodies).   Appeals will be managed by the BRE Risk and Internal Audit team according to the BRE Complaints and Appeals. Where necessary, an Appeals Committee will be formed including a Standing Chair and two independent members. The Appeals Committee may request representation from members of the Impartiality Committee where the appeal includes issues around impartiality.