What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on 5.2 Policy?

The approved information security policy signed off by top management; Policy text showing objectives or an objective-setting framework and the two commitments (to requirements and to continual improvement); Communication records such as intranet publication, induction material or acknowledgements; Where appropriate, evidence that interested parties can obtain the policy, such as a public summary or distribution to suppliers.

What is the most common gap auditors find on 5.2?

The policy lacks the commitment to continual improvement or to meeting requirements

ISO/IEC 27001:2022 · Clause 5

`5.2` Policy

Top management must set an information security policy that suits the organization's purpose; states the security objectives (6.2) or gives a framework for setting them; commits to meeting applicable information security requirements; and commits to continually improving the ISMS. The policy must exist as documented information, be communicated internally, and be made available, where appropriate, to interested parties.

Source: ISO/IEC 27001:2022, 5.2. 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/IEC 27001:2022 in the compliance library.

Clauses 4 to 10 are the management-system requirements: none of them can be excluded when an organisation claims conformity. The 93 Annex A controls are a reference set: one may be excluded with a justification in the Statement of Applicability. Certification bodies assess conformity; the evidence lists here are what auditors commonly ask for, not a list the standard prescribes.

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

Communication records such as intranet publication, induction material or acknowledgements · HR system / LMS
Where appropriate, evidence that interested parties can obtain the policy, such as a public summary or distribution to suppliers · Vendor register / contract repository

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

The approved information security policy signed off by top management · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Policy text showing objectives or an objective-setting framework and the two commitments (to requirements and to continual improvement) · 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

The policy lacks the commitment to continual improvement or to meeting requirements
Objectives are neither stated nor given a framework
Staff cannot find or have never seen the policy
The policy was approved by someone other than top management

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

5.1 Leadership and commitment · 5.3 Organizational roles, responsibilities and authorities