ACCA awarded ISO 22301
The international standard for Business Continuity – ISO 22301 – has been awarded to ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants).
ACCA was recently audited by the British Standards Institute, on three separate occasions over a total period of two weeks, to determine whether its Business Continuity Management Systems, in place at its main UK offices in London and Glasgow, are effective.
An effective Business Continuity Management System is integral to the procedures which ACCA have in place to ensure it can continue to operate in the event of a business interruption such as weather-related incidents, the loss of key staff, a technological or communication system failure, or even the business failure of one of its key suppliers.
Valid for three years with an annual re-assessment, the ISO 22301 certification means that ACCA can adhere to BSI standards as follows:
- Identify and manage current and future threats to its business
- Take a proactive approach to minimising the impact of incidents
- Manage an incident effectively to ensure that:
- Critical activities can be restored within their recovery times during an incident
- Downtime during incidents is minimised
- All interested parties are communicated with to keep them informed
- Demonstrate resilience to customers, suppliers and for tender requests
- All Plans are regularly exercised so that recovery teams are competent and information is up to date
- The Business Continuity Management System is continually improved
Jan Lloyd, head of Global Business Support, took ACCA through the rigorous assessment. Commenting on the process, Jan Lloyd says: ‘ACCA has grown as an organisation so that we now have some 91 offices and centres around the world. This standard ensures a consistency of approach across our UK based teams, and sets the standard we are using as best practice in our non-UK offices, so that our Business Continuity Plans (BCPs), and their nominated plan owners, know exactly who is responsible for what and when, and importantly what do when a business risk is anticipated or happens.’
Jan Lloyd concludes: ‘This was a complicated project, but we are of course delighted that we have gained this important global standard – it is a sure sign of quality and excellence, so we are proud to be able to show we now have the ISO 22301certification.’
Source: ACCA – ACCA awarded ISO 22301
