Management system guidance
9.1 Monitoring, Measurement, Analysis and Evaluation
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9.1.2 Evaluation of compliance
Clause 9.1.2 requires your organization to have the process(es) it needs to evaluate whether it is meeting its compliance obligations, that is, the legal requirements and other requirements it must or chooses to comply with, as determined under 6.1.3 Compliance obligations. Your organization must:
- Decide how often compliance will be evaluated;
- Carry out the evaluation and take action where needed;
- Maintain knowledge and understanding of its compliance status.
Appropriate documented information must be available as evidence of the results of compliance evaluations.
What changed in ISO 14001:2026
The clause is unchanged in substance. The wording now refers to ‘meeting’ compliance obligations rather than ‘fulfilling’ them, and the records requirement now reads that documented information be ‘available as evidence’ of evaluation results rather than ‘retain documented information’. Neither change alters what a well-run compliance evaluation process already does.
Setting the frequency
Every compliance obligation has to be evaluated periodically, but not all at the same interval. The frequency and timing can reflect:
- The importance of the requirement and the environmental risk if it is not met;
- Variations in operating conditions, such as seasonal production or new equipment;
- Changes in compliance obligations, such as new legislation or a permit variation;
- Your organization’s past performance, including previous breaches, complaints and regulator feedback.
For example, permit emission limits may be checked monthly against monitoring data, while waste duty of care records might be reviewed quarterly and a voluntary industry code annually.
Methods of evaluation
Your organization can use a variety of methods to maintain its knowledge of compliance status. These may include:
- Reviewing monitoring and measurement results against permit or consent limits (see 9.1.1 General);
- Site inspections and walk-rounds;
- Document and record reviews, such as waste transfer notes, consignment notes and license renewals;
- Dedicated compliance audits, or compliance checks built into 9.2 Internal audit;
- Interviews with personnel responsible for controls;
- The results of evaluations carried out by external parties, such as regulator inspections, customer audits or specialist consultants.
A compliance register that lists each obligation, how it applies, who is responsible, how and how often it is evaluated, and the latest result is a practical way to show that compliance status is known and current.
Taking action
If an evaluation shows that your organization is failing to meet a compliance obligation, it must determine and implement the actions needed to achieve compliance. This may require contacting the regulator and agreeing a course of action; once agreed, that arrangement itself becomes a compliance obligation. Investigate causes and contributing factors, and manage the issue through 10.2 Nonconformity and corrective action.
Note that a non-compliance is not automatically a nonconformity if, for example, it is detected and corrected by the EMS processes themselves. Conversely, compliance-related nonconformities must be corrected even where no actual breach of a compliance obligation has occurred.
The certification auditor’s view
The certification auditor’s role is not to confirm that your organization is legally compliant, but to assess whether your evaluation process is effective and whether actions are taken when gaps are found. You must be able to demonstrate an understanding of your compliance status, so your methods (inspections, tests, audits) need to be frequent and robust enough to keep that knowledge up to date. Results also feed into 9.3 Management review, and the environmental policy commitment to meet compliance obligations (see 5.2 Environmental policy).
You should seek and record evidence that the frequency of compliance evaluation has been determined for each obligation; that evaluations have been carried out as planned using suitable methods; that failures to meet obligations have been acted upon, including any agreements with regulators; that personnel responsible can explain the current compliance status; and that documented information on evaluation results is available.
More information on PDCA
Planning
Context
Planning
Support
Doing
Support
Operations
Checking
Monitoring, measurement, analysis and evaluation
Acting
Improvement
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