What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on A.5.35 Independent review of information security?

Statement of Applicability entry for control A.5.35, showing inclusion or justified exclusion, implementation status and the risks it treats; A management-approved programme of periodic independent reviews of information security; Review reports by reviewers independent of the area, with evidence of their competence and independence; Reports of results to the commissioning management and to top management where appropriate; Corrective action plans raised from review findings and evidence of their completion.

What is the most common gap auditors find on A.5.35?

Reviews are carried out by staff who report into the area being reviewed

ISO/IEC 27001:2022 · Organizational controls

`A.5.35` Independent review of information security

How the organization manages information security, and how that is carried out through people, processes and technology, is to be examined by someone independent on a planned cycle and whenever a significant change occurs. Purpose (stated in ISO/IEC 27002:2022): keeps the way information security is managed suitable, adequate and effective. As an Annex A reference control, it is compared with the controls determined in risk treatment (6.1.3 c) and recorded in the Statement of Applicability as included or excluded, with the justification and implementation status (6.1.3 d); implementation guidance is ISO/IEC 27002:2022 5.35.

Source: ISO/IEC 27001:2022, A.5.35. 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

Review reports by reviewers independent of the area, with evidence of their competence and independence · HR system / LMS
Reports of results to the commissioning management and to top management where appropriate · Document repository

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Statement of Applicability entry for control A.5.35, showing inclusion or justified exclusion, implementation status and the risks it treats · Policy repository / GRC workspace
A management-approved programme of periodic independent reviews of information security · Document repository
Corrective action plans raised from review findings and evidence of their completion · 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

Reviews are carried out by staff who report into the area being reviewed
Reviews happen only on a fixed schedule and are not triggered by significant change
Findings are reported but no corrective action is initiated
Reviewers lack information security competence, so reviews are superficial

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

A.5.34 Privacy and protection of personal identifiable information (PII) · A.5.36 Compliance with policies, rules and standards for information security