What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on 7.5.3 Control of documented information?

Access and distribution controls with evidence of enforcement; Storage and preservation arrangements including offline or alternate site availability; Version control history and retention and disposition schedule; Register of controlled external origin documents.

What is the most common gap auditors find on 7.5.3?

Plans stored only on the corporate network, so they are unavailable in the scenario they exist for

ISO 22301:2019 · Support, ISO 22301:2019

`7.5.3` Control of documented information

Keep control of the documented information the BCMS and the standard call for, so that it can be found and used where and when it is needed and is properly protected. This covers how it is distributed, accessed, retrieved and used; how it is stored and preserved, legibility included; how changes are controlled; and how long it is kept and how it is disposed of. Documented information that comes from outside but on which the BCMS relies must also be identified and controlled.

Source: ISO 22301:2019, 7.5.3. 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

Document repository

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

Access and distribution controls with evidence of enforcement · Document repository

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Storage and preservation arrangements including offline or alternate site availability · Document repository
Version control history and retention and disposition schedule · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Register of controlled external origin documents · 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

Plans stored only on the corporate network, so they are unavailable in the scenario they exist for
External origin documents such as supplier contracts and regulator guidance left uncontrolled
Protection considered for confidentiality but not for integrity or loss
Superseded plans still in circulation at response team locations

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

7.5.2 Creating and updating · 8.1 Operational planning and control