Impartiality Policy

Valpas Certifications carries out all certification activities in a completely impartial and objective manner by using ISO 17021:2015 as a guideline for our processes. All certification decisions are made based on audit evidence and independent of all third parties. Valpas Certifications is committed to act in an impartial and objective manner in all processes and our goal is to identify all situations where conflicts of interest may arise. Therefore, we have established an impartiality committee to supervise our activities and to provide us feedback on the matters related to impartiality and objectivity.

The impartiality committee is completely impartial and consists of personnel not employed by Valpas Certifications. The goal of the committee is to ensure that all processes are carried out according to our impartiality and objectivity guidelines and requirements set by the accreditation body. The impartiality board also supports Valpas Certifications to further develop all principles related to the matters.

All complaints and appeals must be submitted in a written form to Valpas Certifications.

An appeal is considered to be an action related to a certification decision made by Valpas Certifications. The appeal shall be submitted by the client which is seeking a certification or already has a certification granted by Valpas Certifications. All appeals related to certification must be submitted in written form to Valpas Certifications within 14 days of acknowledging the certification decision. The appeal is handled by personnel different than the personnel which carried out the certification activities for the client in question.

A complaint is considered to be an action related to activities carried out be a certified client. All complaints are handled by personnel different than the personnel which carried out the certification activities for the client in question. Complaints can be made anonymously and the complainant will be provided information about the acceptance of the complaint within 14 days from the date which the complaint has been submitted. The complainant will also be kept up-to-date of the complaint handling process. However, all confidential information covered in non-disclosure-agreement between Valpas Certifications and the client shall be left out. Complaints are processed within 3 months from the date which the complaint has been submitted.

All appeals and complaints can be submitted electronically to iiro@valpascertifications.fi or by mail to

Valpas Certifications
Konepajankuja 1
00510 Helsinki