What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on 5.2.1 Establishing the business continuity policy?

Approved policy carrying an explicit commitment to applicable requirements and to improvement; Approval record naming the top management body and the date; Traceability from the policy to the continuity objectives set under it.

What is the most common gap auditors find on 5.2.1?

Generic policy text lifted from a template that says nothing about this organization's purpose

ISO 22301:2019 · Leadership, ISO 22301:2019

`5.2.1` Establishing the business continuity policy

Top management must set a business continuity policy that suits the organization's purpose, gives a frame for setting continuity objectives, and commits the organization to satisfying applicable requirements and to continually improving the BCMS.

Source: ISO 22301:2019, 5.2.1. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open ISO 22301:2019 in the compliance library.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

hard

to go live

Policy repository / GRC workspace

where the evidence lives

teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

none for this control

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Approval record naming the top management body and the date · Policy repository / GRC workspace

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Approved policy carrying an explicit commitment to applicable requirements and to improvement · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Traceability from the policy to the continuity objectives set under it · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

No system holds this evidence for you: it is people and documents. Reminders and routing to the owner still save time. Put the document under version control with an owner and review date, and log each review as a record with reviewer and date.

Common gaps auditors find

Generic policy text lifted from a template that says nothing about this organization's purpose
Commitments to requirements or improvement missing or implied only
Objectives set with no reference back to the policy framework

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

Build my evidence sheet

5.2 Policy · 5.2.2 Communicating the business continuity policy