We adjust the priority for surveillance of certificate holders in response to the risk profile ranking, information from surveillance activities, and from other sources, such as safety investigation and safety analysis of accidents, incidents and defects.
Our response to indications of poor or declining performance, and increased risk, may include:
- Additional hours spent on each audit module (increased depth or increased sampling).
- Use of other surveillance tools, as appropriate, including special purpose audits and inspections, and spot checks.
- Additional scheduled audit visits and inspections (increased frequency).
Additional and more targeted surveillance will be effective in cases where voluntary compliance is still considered to be the main compliance tool.
Some information will require an urgent response in the public interest, such as when the risk profiling system generates an alert due to a pre-set threshold being exceeded. Then the relevant manager will determine the cause of the change in risk rating and decide what, if any, CAA intervention is required to mitigate the risk.
Deciding the depth and frequency of inspection and monitoring in each case involves a review of the document holder's Participant Risk Profile (including both the overall rating, and the ratings for each individual indicator in the Client Risk Profile). Previous risk assessments are also reviewed to determine whether any trend exists and if the level of risk is consistent. An adverse trend may indicate a need to take action even if the current rating is not cause for concern in its own right.
Decision guidelines for our staff
- If the Participant Risk Profile does not indicate any medium or high risks, the risk performance has been consistently good for a period of two years, an audit or inspection has been conducted within the past two years, and none of the risk indicators give a cause for concern, then there are reasonable grounds for not conducting an audit or inspection visit.
- If the Participant Risk Profile indicates medium risks are present, conduct a routine audit or inspection, focusing on areas that have caused the higher risk indications.
- If the Participant Risk Profile indicates medium and high risks are present, conduct a routine audit or inspection, focusing on areas that have caused the higher risk indications. Consider audit visits more frequently than once per year.
- If the Participant Risk Profile indicates a number of high risks are present, conduct a comprehensive routine audit or inspection, focusing on areas that have caused the higher risk indications. It is very important that they are subject to intensive safety oversight activity aimed at reducing the safety risk they pose and should be the subject of frequent, in-depth safety oversight with visits conducted more frequently than once per year.