ISO/IEC Directives 2020

Main changes

IEC Central Office 2020-05-08 International

Technical Department Electrotechnical
Commission
Changes in
Directives Part 1

2
Introduction of the term "committee"

The Directives were using several terms like "TC" or "TC/SC" or SC

or SyC.
The term "Committee" is now introduced in the Part 1 and the IEC
Supplement. See the definition in the terms table page 8.
When "Committees" is used in the Directives, it includes:
• TCs: Technical Committees
• SCs: Subcommittees
• PCs: Projects Committees
• SyC: Systems Committees
When it is necessary to differentiate TCs, SCs and SyCs, these terms are maintained.
Possible confusion with a National Committee: In the Directives, the ISO/IEC term for an IEC National
Committee is "Member Body" (see terms table page 8).

3
General principles for voting and decisions

In the foreword paragraph 5, e) "General principles for voting

and decisions" is removed and replaced by additional text in
1.9.2 d)

This will ensure the transparency of the committees operation.

4
Acting secretary at a plenary meeting

The Directives state that the secretary is nominated by the

secretariat. If the secretary cannot attend a meeting, the
secretariat is expected to nominate an acting secretary.
In the situation when the secretary cannot attend the meeting
(last minute problem), the committee can now nominate an
acting secretary for the meeting.

5
WGs operate by consensus and submit recommendations

This intends to highlight that WGs are expected to operate by

consensus. It happened that WGs (on ISO side) were approving by
vote formal decisions concerning the committee. The added text
reminds that WGs shall make recommendations for further approval
by the committee.

6
Guests at WG meetings
Notification of the National Committee
When inviting a guest at a WG meeting, the convenor shall inform the National
Committee of the gest country.

Limitation of the number of participations for a guest (for IEC only)

In order to avoid having "permanent" guests at WG meetings, text is added in the IEC
Supplement.

7
Liaisons requests received from another IEC committee
This text clarifies that:
• The establishment of a liaison is a committee decision
• Liaisons requests between IEC committees cannot be refused.

8
Clarification of the provisions for liaisons A, B, and C
Clause 1,17 "Liaison with other organizations" has a new structure to
clarify the differences between Liaisons A, B, and C.
The changes mainly occur in 1.17.2: the procedure for the
establishment of a liaison is applicable to all liaison categories, not
only categories A and B.

In 1.17.4.2, text is added to clarify which kind of organizations are

expected to establish Liaisons C with a committee.

9
Advance notice for working group meetings
In the case of fully remote meeting, the advance notice is reduced to
4 weeks.
Clause 4.2.2.1 is reworded to address both F2F and remote meetings.
The provision about equal access to the meeting by all the WG
members is adapted to remote participation.

10
Secretariat as a possible proposer for fast track procedure

Clause F.2.1.1 of Annex F is listing the possible proposers for a fast

track procedure. The committee secretariat has been added as
possible proposer.

11
Annexes L and M about Management Systems Standards

These two annexes have been removed as several committee officers

reported to the SMB that the content of these Annexes was not
coherent with the existing content of several IEC standards. The
issue is mainly related to the definition of "risk".

The SMB is convinced that formally including Management Systems

Standards into the IEC deliverables will offer wider possibilities for
the IEC committees and will bring value to the IEC community. This
will be reviewed in two years in collaboration with the concerned
committees.

12
Changes in
IEC Supplement

13
Update Annex SP – Systems standardization

The Annex SP has gone under major revisions to comply with the
recommendations approved by SMB following the reports of ahG 70
and ahG 80.

SMB/ahG 70 - Review of Systems activities

• SMB/6160/R and SMB/6160/RV
• AC/17/2018

SMB/ahG 80 - Clarification of Systems Concepts

• SMB/6512/R & RV
• SMB/6550/DL - Decision 163/9

14
Liaisons with Conformity Assessment

New Clause 1.15.6

Technical committees can establish liaisons with Conformity
Assessment systems. The nature of the liaison and process to
establish it is similar to liaisons between IEC committees.

15
Remote participation at Committee plenary meetings
New Clause 4.5
This clause provides provisions about remote participations at
plenary meetings. Following the trial period allowing remote
participation, this type of participation is now part of the Directives.

16
Clarification of the requirement for technical reasons

When voting negatively on a DTR, DTS, DPAS and DISH, the

Directives did not clearly state if a technical reason was required.

For all the above deliverables, the following sentence is now added:

17
Four weeks ballot time on NPs

For NPs provided with only an outline and assigned to an existing

WG, it is possible to reduce the NP ballot time to 4 weeks.

18
Update of Annex SK
TC 1 worked on a revision of Annex SK which was approved at its
Shanghai plenary meeting and further endorsed by SMB. Most of the
changes bring clarifications and improved guidance for developing
terminology. The following changes may be noted:
SK.3.1.3.3 Absence of a preferred term

New Clause SK.3.1.3.6.4

19
 Thank you!

IEC Central Office

Technical Department