| Clause | AMWS position today | Position | Owner | Target |
|---|
This plan sets out how A M Water Services Limited transitions from ISO 14001:2015 to ISO 14001:2026, clause by clause, in fulfilment of the decision recorded at the May 2026 interim Management Review. It records where the management system already meets the new edition, where it does not, and what closes the difference.
| Standard published | 15 April 2026 |
| Edition | Fourth edition. Cancels and replaces ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015/Amd 1:2024. Prepared by ISO/TC 207/SC 1 with CEN |
| Transition window | 36 months from publication. Confirmed by Global ACI-TECH-3-TR, published 16/09/2026: existing ISO 14001:2015 certificates transition by 30 April 2029, and from 31 October 2027 new and initial certifications may only be issued to the 2026 edition |
| AMWS current certificate | ISO 14001:2015, Alcumus ISOQAR, cert 24725-EMS-001, expiry 23 November 2027 |
| Planned transition point | Recertification audit, autumn 2027 — transition assessed as part of recertification rather than bolted onto a surveillance visit |
| Margin against the window | Approximately 18 months between the planned autumn 2027 recertification and the April 2029 deadline. AMWS is not time-pressured; the risk is drift, not deadline |
| Certification body confirmation | Alcumus ISOQAR to confirm transition-audit duration and whether any uplift day applies — not yet requested. The 6–8 October 2026 surveillance visit includes a Recertification Planning session, which is the natural place to raise it |
Ask Alcumus ISOQAR to confirm the transition arrangement and any additional audit time. Everything else in this plan is within AMWS’s control; that one is not, and it sets the shape of the autumn 2027 visit.
Raise it at the Recertification Planning session on 7 October 2026, which is already on the surveillance audit agenda. Owner: Sean Ashton.
Three states, each with a test that can be applied rather than judged:
| Position | How it is decided |
|---|---|
| Met | The system already satisfies the clause. The remaining work is confirming it, not building it. |
| Partial | Something is in place and it does not yet carry the full requirement. Real work is needed, and the action says what. |
| Gap | Nothing is currently in place against the clause. |
Counted from the rows at build time: 8 met, 8 partial, 0 gap across 16 clause areas.
An evolution rather than a rewrite. The Harmonised Structure is retained and the numbering moves only at 6.1 and clause 10. The foreword of the fourth edition states the changes generally — the incorporation of the current requirements for management system standards, and clarification of requirements associated with key topics. The rows below are the clause-by-clause reading of them.
| Clause | What changed | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Terms and definitions regrouped under four headings — organization and leadership, planning, support and operation, performance evaluation and improvement — in place of the flat list | Structural |
| 4.1 | Environmental conditions named explicitly in the requirement text — pollution levels, availability of natural resources, climate change, biodiversity, ecosystem health. Previously guidance examples only | Broadened |
| 4.2 | Interested-party needs must be shown to be addressed through the EMS | Clarification |
| 5.1 | Accountability extended from management roles to all relevant roles | Clarification |
| 5.2 | Policy wording — "meet" rather than "fulfil" compliance obligations; conservation of natural resources referenced | Clarification |
| 6.1.2 | Aspects to be determined under normal and abnormal conditions, with emergency situations formally linked, and cross-referenced to planned changes | Clarification |
| 6.1.4 · 6.1.5 | Risks and opportunities becomes a sub-clause in its own right and shall be available as documented information. The 2015 6.1.4 Planning action moves to 6.1.5 | New requirement |
| 6.3 | Planning of changes — entirely new clause. Changes affecting the EMS shall be carried out in a planned manner and evaluated for intended outcomes | New requirement |
| 7.4 | Communication to be transparent, timely, appropriate, truthful, factual, inclusive, understandable | Clarification |
| 8.1 | Scope widened from outsourced processes to externally provided processes, products or services relevant to the intended outcomes | Broadened |
| 9.1.1 | Monitoring and measurement data shall be analysed, with the analysis approach defined at planning | Clarification |
| 9.2.2 | Internal audit programme to state audit objectives alongside criteria and scope | Clarification |
| 9.3 | Split into 9.3.1 General / 9.3.2 Inputs / 9.3.3 Results, with documented decisions required across six areas | Structural |
| 10.1 · 10.2 | Restructured from three sub-clauses to two. 10.1 is now Continual improvement and 10.2 Nonconformity and corrective action; the 2015 10.1 General and 10.3 Continual improvement are gone. The same change as ISO 9001:2026 | Structural |
| Annex A | Retitled Guidance on the use of this document and informative throughout. The alphabetical index of terms is retained | Informative |
Three pieces of work done for other reasons support the transition:
1. APP_05 already exists as a discrete risk and opportunity register. Clause 6.1.4 is the change most organisations will have to build something for; AMWS built it in 2024. 2. The Annex SL climate amendment of February 2024 was absorbed in the 2026 IMS review: APP_05 R-20 climate, APP_06 Aspect 13 climate adaptation, APP_16 ER-12 extreme weather. Clause 4.1's climate wording is therefore a confirmation exercise, not a gap. 3. APP_15 gives a documented life-cycle perspective at a level most SMEs do not attempt.
The genuinely new work is Clause 6.3 planning of changes, and the widened 8.1 external-provider scope. Everything else is a wording pass on documents already in the annual cycle.
| # | Stage | Owner | Target | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Confirm transition arrangements and audit duration with Alcumus ISOQAR — for ISO 9001:2026 and ISO 14001:2026 together at the autumn 2027 recertification. Raise at the Recertification Planning session on 07/10/2026 | Sean Ashton | 07/10/2026 | Not started |
| 2 | IA202617 — ISO 14001:2026 transition pre-audit, testing this gap analysis against the live system | Sean Ashton | 30/11/2026 | Scheduled in APP_20 |
| 3 | Define the analysis approach for E1/E2/E3 (9.1.1) alongside the carbon target-setting already due | Sean Ashton | 31/12/2026 | Not started |
| 3b | Read Annex A in full, pages 18–35. Informative, and the clearest statement of what the drafters intended by the changes above | Sean Ashton | 31/12/2026 | Not started |
| 4 | Clause 6.3 — confirm and strengthen SOP 5.2, add the change record | Sean Ashton | 31/03/2027 | Not started |
| 5 | APP_06 normal / abnormal / emergency conditions per aspect | Sean Ashton | 31/03/2027 | Not started |
| 6 | APP_01 and APP_04 — biodiversity and ecosystem health as named conditions | Sean Ashton | 31/03/2027 | Not started |
| 7 | APP_19 environmental criterion for environmentally material suppliers | Sean Ashton + Leanne Mason | 31/03/2027 | Not started |
| 8 | APP_20 audit objectives column, from the 2027 cycle | Sean Ashton | 30/04/2027 | Not started |
| 8b | Obtain ISO 9001:2026 (published 16/09/2026) and run the equivalent gap analysis — issued as APP_28, companion to this plan | Sean Ashton | 31/10/2026 | In progress |
| 8c | APP_02 renumbered to the 2026 clause structure — clause 10 and the 6.1.5 move — and the Improvement audit rescoped to 10.1 and 10.2. Common action with APP_28 stage 6; one renumbering serves both standards | Sean Ashton | 30/04/2027 | Not started |
| 9 | 2027 internal audit cycle run against the 2026 edition clause sets for both 9001 and 14001 | Sean Ashton | May 2027 | Not started |
| 10 | POL_HSQE_10 wording on the annual policy cycle | Sean Ashton | 03/09/2027 | Not started |
| 11 | Transition readiness confirmed at the September 2027 Management Review | Directors | 30/09/2027 | Not started |
| 12 | Alcumus ISOQAR recertification with transition | — | Autumn 2027 | Not started |
| Standard | Position | AMWS response |
|---|---|---|
| ISO 9001 | Sixth edition published 16 September 2026. Global ACI-TECH-3-TR confirms the transition: new and initial certifications to the 2026 edition only from 31 March 2028, and existing ISO 9001:2015 certificates to transition by 30 September 2029 | No longer a watching brief. The transition plan is held separately at APP_28 as a companion to this one |
| ISO 45001 | Still ISO 45001:2018. The DIS ballot closed 9 August 2026; publication expected 2027 | Watching brief. Draft a transition plan on publication |
| ISO/IEC 27001:2022 + Amd 1:2024 | Current. Not in AMWS certification scope, but the climate-action amendment is the same one absorbed into the Harmonised Structure | Referenced in POL_HSQE_30; no certification implication |
ISO 9001:2026 published on 16 September 2026 and ISO 14001:2026 on 15 April 2026. AMWS's certificates for both expire on 23 November 2027, and the two transition deadlines confirmed by Global ACI are 30 September 2029 for 9001 and 30 April 2029 for 14001. That means both transitions can be assessed at the same autumn 2027 recertification audit, in one visit with one uplift and one set of evidence, rather than a 14001 transition at recertification and a 9001 transition bolted onto a later surveillance visit. Much of the work is common to both standards. Clause 4.1 context, the new 6.3 planning-of-changes requirement and the 9.3 management-review split all appear in the Harmonised Structure and will land in both standards in near-identical wording. Do that work once, against the IMS rather than against the environmental documents alone, and it satisfies both. Action: obtain the published ISO 9001:2026 text after 16 September 2026, run the same clause-by-clause gap analysis, and issue it as a companion to this plan, or fold both into a single integrated transition plan at the next issue. Completed — the ISO 9001:2026 clause-by-clause gap analysis is issued as a companion plan at APP_28, so the position is known before the Recertification Planning session on 7 October.
The three transitions overlap across roughly 2026–2030. Doing the clause 4, 6.3 and 9.3 work once, in a way that serves all three standards, is the efficient route for an integrated system. The actions above are written on that basis.
| Risk | Control |
|---|---|
| Drift — 18 months of margin invites deferral | Six-monthly review of this plan rather than annual; standing item at each Management Review |
| Actions cluster at 31/03/2027 | Four actions share that date — programme stages 4, 5, 6 and 7. Sequence 6.3 and APP_06 first — they are the substantive ones |
| Two transitions land on one recertification | Deliberate, and the efficient route — but it concentrates the risk on a single audit. Stage 1 with Alcumus ISOQAR establishes whether the visit needs extra time — raise it at the Recertification Planning session on 07/10/2026 |
| Single-person dependency — most actions sit with the HSQE Consultant | Deliberate; the work is documentation. Director review at the weekly compliance call provides the check |
4 actions share the target date 31/03/2027, counted from the rows above.
| Role | Responsibility |
|---|---|
| Sean Ashton HSQE Consultant | Owns the transition plan, the gap analysis and the engagement with Alcumus ISOQAR |
| Aaron Mason Director | Approves the plan and the resourcing of the programme stages |
| Leanne Mason Director, HR & Admin | Owns the procurement and supplier-facing actions in the programme |
Approved by the Directors. Reviewed six-monthly rather than annually, because eighteen months of margin against the deadline invites deferral, and carried as a standing item at each Management Review.
| Issue | Date | Approved by | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 04/09/2026 | Aaron Mason, Director | Initial issue. Fulfils the May 2026 interim Management Review decision to draft an ISO 14001:2026 transition plan in Q3 2026. Clause-by-clause gap analysis against the AMWS IMS — 5 green, 7 amber, 0 red. |
| 2 | 09/09/2026 | Aaron Mason, Director | Cross-reference pass — no change to substance. |
| 3 | 29/09/2026 | Aaron Mason, Director | Verified against the published fourth edition. Clause 10 was carried as an editorial merge and is a restructure — 10.1 is now Continual improvement and 10.2 Nonconformity and corrective action, so the position moves to Partial with the APP_02 renumber as the action, shared with APP_28. Clause 3 term groupings, the 6.1.4 / 6.1.5 move and Annex A added as clause areas. Programme stages 3b Annex A read and 8c APP_02 renumber added. |