1. Purpose of the gate
This gate is the organisation's own review after the certification body's first stage audit. The first stage is the auditors' check of readiness: whether the documentation, scope and site conditions support a second stage audit, whether internal audit and management review have been completed, and whether the data the scheme requires before the audit has been supplied. The auditors may raise areas of concern that could become nonconformities if they are not addressed.
The organisation holds this gate to decide that the second stage can go ahead as planned: every area of concern has an owner and an action that will be complete before the second stage starts, and the second stage audit plan is agreed. Treating areas of concern as if they were already nonconformities, with a root cause and an action, is the surest way to keep them from becoming nonconformities.
The gate is also a useful moment to check what the auditors' questions showed about the system. Areas where the auditors needed a long time to find evidence, or where explanations differed between people, are often where the second stage will look hardest.
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