| Clause | AMWS position today | Position | Owner | Target |
|---|
This plan sets out how A M Water Services Limited transitions from ISO 9001:2015 to ISO 9001:2026, clause by clause. It records where the management system already meets the new edition, where it does not, and what closes the difference.
| Standard published | 16 September 2026, sixth edition, BS EN ISO 9001:2026 |
| Transition window | Confirmed by Global ACI-TECH-3-TR, published 16/09/2026: new and initial certifications may only be issued to the 2026 edition from 31 March 2028, and organisations already certified to ISO 9001:2015 must complete their transition by 30 September 2029 |
| AMWS current certificate | ISO 9001:2015, Alcumus ISOQAR under UKAS accreditation, certificate 24725-QMS-001, expiry 23 November 2027 |
| Planned transition point | Recertification audit, autumn 2027, assessed together with the ISO 14001:2026 transition in one visit rather than as two separate exercises |
| Margin against the window | Approximately 22 months between the planned autumn 2027 recertification and the September 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 both standards can be taken at the one recertification. Raise at the Recertification Planning session on 07/10/2026 |
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: 6 met, 5 partial, 0 gap across 11 clause areas.
An evolution rather than a rewrite. The Harmonised Structure is retained and the clause numbering is broadly stable. These carry real work for an organisation of AMWS’s type.
| Clause | What changed | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Clause | What changed | Kind |
| 3 | Clause 3 now carries a limited set of core ISO management system terms and definitions. ISO 9000 remains the normative reference for all quality management terms | Structural |
| 5.1 · 7.1.4 · 7.3 | Quality culture and ethical behaviour introduced into the requirements, in leadership, in awareness, and in the environment for the operation of processes | Substantive |
| 6.1 | Risks and opportunities separated. 6.1.1 determining risks and opportunities, 6.1.2 actions to address risks, 6.1.3 actions to address opportunities, with the actions for each considered separately | Substantive |
| 6.3 | Management of change strengthened to support the achievement of intended results | Substantive |
| 10 | 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 | Structural |
| 9.2 | Split into 9.2.1 General and 9.2.2 Internal audit programme | Structural |
| 9.3.3 | Management review outputs becomes management review results | Editorial |
| 4.4 · 5.2 · 6.2 · 7.5.3 | Sub-clause numbering flattened; 4.4 retitled Quality management system | Editorial |
| Annex A | Expanded to clarify structure, terminology and the intent of the requirements, as informative text without adding requirements | Informative |
| Annex B | Removed. Its references to other ISO/TC 176 standards move into Annex A and onto the ISO/TC 176 website | Informative |
Four pieces of work done for other reasons carry straight into this transition.
1. The risk and opportunity register already scores opportunities. Clause 6.1.3 is new, and most organisations will be starting from a register that holds risks and treats opportunities as an afterthought. APP_05 already scores opportunities by the same method as risks. What remains is separating the actions, not building the register.
2. The 2026 internal audit cycle already reports against the 9.2.1 / 9.2.2 split. The re-authored reports test the general requirement and then the six programme requirements as separate rows, which is the structure the 2026 edition adopts.
3. The HSQE Culture Audit exists and has run a cycle. Quality culture is the substantive new requirement, and the usual response is to invent a measure for it. AMWS ran its first culture audit cycle on 22/09/2026 and holds it at APP_27. The measure is already there.
4. The ethics set is in place. Ethical behaviour enters the requirements for the first time, and AMWS already holds anti-slavery, anti-bribery and whistleblowing policies. What is missing is the word, not the control.
The substantive work is quality culture and ethical behaviour named in the policy and the awareness set, the 6.1 three-way split, and 6.3 management of change — and 6.3 is the same action already carried for ISO 14001, so it is done once.
| # | 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 | Sean Ashton | 07/10/2026 | Not started |
| 2 | Read Annex A in full. It is the clearest statement of what the drafters intended by the changes above and it is informative, so it costs nothing but reading time | Sean Ashton | 31/12/2026 | Not started |
| 3 | Clause 6.1 — separate the risk treatments from the opportunity actions in APP_05 | Sean Ashton | 31/03/2027 | Not started |
| 4 | Clause 6.3 — strengthen SOP 5.2 and add the change record. Common action with APP_25 stage 4; deliver once for both standards | Sean Ashton | 31/03/2027 | Not started |
| 5 | IA202619 — clause 8 delivery audit, sampling a job file against SOP 5.5. Scheduled in APP_20 | Sean Ashton | 30/04/2027 | Scheduled in APP_20 |
| 6 | APP_02 renumbered to the 2026 clause structure — clause 10, the 9.2 split, and the four flattened sub-clauses | Sean Ashton | 30/04/2027 | Not started |
| 7 | FORM_MR_001 and SOP 6.4 — outputs becomes results | Sean Ashton | 30/04/2027 | Not started |
| 8 | 2027 internal audit cycle run against the 2026 edition clause sets for both 9001 and 14001 | Sean Ashton | May 2027 | Not started |
| 9 | Quality culture and ethical behaviour named in POL_HSQE_00 and POL_HSQE_20 at the annual policy cycle, and added to the awareness set in MAN_01 | Sean Ashton | 03/09/2027 | Not started |
| 10 | Transition readiness confirmed at the September 2027 Management Review | Directors | 30/09/2027 | Not started |
| 11 | Alcumus ISOQAR recertification with transition, both standards | — | Autumn 2027 | Not started |
Both standards were revised in 2026 and AMWS holds both certificates with the same certification body, expiring on the same day. ISO 14001:2026 published 15 April 2026 with a transition deadline of 30 April 2029; ISO 9001:2026 published 16 September 2026 with a deadline of 30 September 2029. The AMWS certificates for both expire on 23 November 2027.
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 one at recertification and the other bolted onto a later surveillance visit. The clause 6.3 management of change work is common to both and is delivered once. The ISO 14001:2026 plan is at APP_25.
ISO 45001 remains at its 2018 edition; a transition plan follows on publication.
| Risk | Control |
|---|---|
| Risk | Control |
| Drift — 22 months of margin invites deferral | Six-monthly review of this plan rather than annual, and a standing item at each Management Review alongside APP_25 |
| Quality culture treated as a wording exercise | The measure is the HSQE Culture Audit at APP_27, not the policy sentence. An assessor will ask what changed, not what the policy says |
| The 6.3 action delivered twice | Stage 4 here and stage 4 at APP_25 are the same piece of work on SOP 5.2. Deliver once and record it against both plans |
| Two transitions land on one recertification | Deliberate, and the reason the Alcumus ISOQAR conversation is stage 1. If the certification body will not take both in one visit, the plan changes shape and needs to change early |
| Clause 8 delivery remains unevidenced | IA202619 samples a job file against SOP 5.5. The procedure was written in September 2026 and has never been audited |
7 actions share the target date 30/04/2027, 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 | 29/09/2026 | Aaron Mason, Director | Initial issue. Built from the published sixth edition of ISO 9001, 16 September 2026 — the Foreword change list and the clause structure in the contents — and from the transition dates set by Global ACI-TECH-3-TR. Companion to APP_25, which carries the ISO 14001:2026 transition. Both standards transition at the one autumn 2027 recertification. |