Yes. During the suspension period, the following activities occur:
• By default, surveillance visits should continue despite suspension. In most cases, this makes little difference, because we would not usually expect suspensions to be very long in place.
Exceptional circumstances: In unusual circumstances where a site/production location is not available for some reason (e.g. in the case of fire resulting in a change of production locations), a surveillance visit would be meaningless. The aim, however, is that before the certificate is reinstated or shortly afterwards all the surveillance visits are carried out and up to date if at all possible.
• Any technical assessment required to address the issues that caused the suspension will take place and the Certificate Holder is encouraged to cooperate and provide all the evidence necessary to demonstrate continuous improvement actions are implemented.
• All surveillance visits should be up to date before the certificate is reinstated, so if a routine visit is refused, the Certificate Holder/ manufacturer would require an extraordinary visit before reinstatement takes place.
• Certificate holders cannot skip a visit just because the BBA have had cause to suspend the certificate .
• If the Certificate Holder continues to refuse either a routine or an extraordinary visit, then their Certificate remains suspended, and finally the certificate will be withdrawn.
