What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on A.6.5 Responsibilities after termination or change of employment?

Statement of Applicability entry for control A.6.5, showing inclusion or justified exclusion, implementation status and the risks it treats; Leaver and mover procedures stating which security responsibilities survive termination or change; Terms and conditions or agreements containing the continuing obligations and their duration; Records of security roles reassigned when their holders left or changed jobs; Exit communications reminding leavers of continuing confidentiality and intellectual property duties.

What is the most common gap auditors find on A.6.5?

Leavers are not reminded of continuing confidentiality obligations

ISO/IEC 27001:2022 · People controls

`A.6.5` Responsibilities after termination or change of employment

Where information security responsibilities and duties continue after someone leaves or changes job, they are to be defined and enforced, and the people and outside parties concerned are to be told about them. Purpose (stated in ISO/IEC 27002:2022): protects the organization's interests when employment or contracts change or end. 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 6.5.

Source: ISO/IEC 27001:2022, A.6.5. 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

Records of security roles reassigned when their holders left or changed jobs · Identity provider / directory

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Statement of Applicability entry for control A.6.5, showing inclusion or justified exclusion, implementation status and the risks it treats · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Leaver and mover procedures stating which security responsibilities survive termination or change · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Terms and conditions or agreements containing the continuing obligations and their duration · Vendor register / contract repository
Exit communications reminding leavers of continuing confidentiality and intellectual property duties · 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

Leavers are not reminded of continuing confidentiality obligations
Security roles such as system owner or key custodian are left vacant after someone leaves
Internal moves are not treated as leave-and-join, so old access and duties persist
External contacts keep dealing with people who no longer hold the role

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.6.4 Disciplinary process · A.6.6 Confidentiality or non-disclosure agreements