Zero Non-Conformances: LPL Completes Four-Day ISO Surveillance Audit

LPL Construction Services has completed its annual surveillance audit across our integrated Business Management System, covering ISO 9001:2015 (quality), ISO 14001:2015 (environmental) and ISO 45001:2018 (occupational health and safety). The audit was carried out by British Assessment Bureau (part of Amtivo) over four full days, with a second auditor supporting the lead auditor on day one.

The result: no major and no minor non-conformances and a recommendation for continued certification.

How the audit was run

The audit was process-based. It combined interviews, observation of work in progress and review of our documentation and records. The audit team examined every clause of the standards, from how we understand our context and risks, through leadership, planning, support and operations, to performance evaluation and continual improvement. That included interviews with our directors and a test of our processes from tender through to handover.

For anyone less familiar with them, ISO stands for the International Organization for Standardization, the independent body that publishes internationally recognised standards for how organisations manage their operations. Our three certifications cover the areas that matter most in our work:

• ISO 9001 covers quality management: delivering work to a consistent standard and being able to evidence it.
• ISO 14001 covers environmental management: understanding our impact and controlling it.
• ISO 45001 covers occupational health and safety: protecting everyone who works on, visits or passes by our sites.

Holding a certificate is one thing. The annual surveillance audits are what keep it credible. Construction involves complex supply chains, large numbers of people on site and very little margin for error, so procedures only have value if they are followed. An independent audit is a robust test of whether the system on paper matches the reality on the ground.

Part of the audit took place on site at London Stansted, where the auditors visited our HBS Upgrade Works for Manchester Airports Group. This gave them the chance to see our processes in action during live delivery, including subcontractor inductions, RAMS, permits to work, daily briefings, site inspections, waste management and welfare provision.

The auditor praised the site manager and their team for the quality of the site environment and for how well they knew the project. In the auditor’s words: “the site audit was a success by the time I had done the induction.”

That independence is why the certification body matters. British Assessment Bureau is UKAS-accredited, which means its audits are independently assessed against national and international standards. It has more than 30 years’ experience supporting organisations with ISO certification and has been part of the Amtivo Group since 2018. It is set to rebrand as Amtivo, but the accreditation and the rigour behind it stay the same.

That kind of independent scrutiny sits at the heart of our brand pillars. Safety, because ISO 45001 underpins our safe systems of work and the audit confirms they work in practice. Transparency, because inviting an independent body to examine our records, processes and people means clients and partners do not have to rely on our word alone. Excellence, because quality is a standard to be met on every project, from the office through to the site. These are three of our six pillars and you can read about all six on our Our Ethos page. It also reflects the commitment to accountable, well-run institutions set out in our SDG Report under SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.

Transition to ISO 14001:2026

Alongside the surveillance audit, we completed our transition audit to the revised ISO 14001:2026, published by ISO on 15 April 2026. It is the first major revision in a decade to the world’s most widely used environmental management standard. Certified organisations have until 30 April 2029 to transition. We chose not to wait and we are among the first of the British Assessment Bureau’s clients to complete the move.

The auditors reviewed how we now assess environmental conditions such as climate change, pollution, resource availability and biodiversity and how we apply a life cycle perspective across our activities and supply chain. Evidence included our updated Management Systems Manual, Environmental Aspects and Impacts Register and the awareness programme delivered to our board, staff and site teams.

From May, our compliance team worked through the new requirements clause by clause. Every change went through our documented information control process, so the updates are built into how we work rather than sitting in a separate file. Our Environmental Aspects and Impacts Register now records the life cycle stage and our level of control or influence for every aspect and briefings were delivered to our board, office teams and site operatives.

I’m personally proud of our compliance team. ISO 14001:2026 was only published in April and within six months this small team has worked through the new requirements, built them into how we operate and taken us through a successful transition audit. Leading our small team means a great deal to me and results like this are how we keep LPL at the forefront of the SME sector which I am equally proud of.

Grant Rayne, Compliance Director

A whole-business effort

Our compliance team led the audit, with support from colleagues across procurement, commercial, operations and site delivery. Our Aviation Director took part in interviews and demonstrated how information and decisions move through the organisation, from the board to the workforce and back again.

That breadth matters. A management system only works when it is used by everyone, every day, rather than kept by one department for audit week. A clean result like this isn’t produced in four days. It reflects the everyday habits of our people: briefings, inspections, toolbox talks and honest reporting, done properly whether anyone is watching or not.

I’m really pleased with the results across the board. Zero non-conformances across three standards and four days of scrutiny shows our systems aren’t just written down, they’re lived. That comes from people right across LPL, from the board to our site teams at Stansted, doing the right thing every day. This was a genuine team result.

Grant Rayne, Compliance Director

What’s next

The auditors raised one opportunity for improvement, relating to the formatting of our company risk register, which we welcome and are already acting on. Findings, whatever their size, are acted on promptly so that our system is stronger after the audit than before it. We will continue to strengthen our systems ahead of our recertification audit in 2027.

Thank you to everyone at LPL who contributed and to the British Assessment Bureau for a thorough and constructive audit.