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Certificate of Conformity including Traceability

A Certificate of Conformity (CoC) is a declaration by the supplier to the Acquirer that, apart from any identified and approved concessions (example: Def Stan 05-61 Part 1) the products conform to contract requirements.

For products that can have a significant impact on safety and/or operational performance, such as certain aircraft or submarine parts, the ability to trace the history, distribution, use or location of materials or parts following delivery is an important consideration. The provision of a completed CoC aids the MOD Supply System to track items to the point of use, as well as enabling product traceability and segregation where component failure or faults occur.

Guidance

This guidance relates to contract requirements for a CoC, including requirements where product or material traceability is required.

The contractual Allied Quality Assurance Publications (AQAP 2110, 2120, 2130 and 2131, available via the AQAP Online Library External link to Internet content ), require the supplier to provide a CoC to the ‘Acquirer and/or the Government Quality Assurance Representative’ (GQAR) unless otherwise instructed. The format of the CoC should be defined within the contract, and a CoC provided for each batch, lot or shipment as delivered.

A suitable Template CoC including Traceability [46KB DOC] format is available for download and use in MOD contracts when one of the above AQAP standards has been invoked.

Certificate of Conformity text for use in contracts

In order to ensure the supplier adopts this particular CoC format, and is able to recognise the need for materiel traceability data where applicable, one of the following narrative clauses is to be selected and included within the contract quality requirements:

When materiel Traceability is not required use this text:

“The Certificate of Conformity (CoC) attached at Annex (X) is to be used when releasing products to the Authority. Completion of Box 13 is not required.”

When materiel Traceability is required use this text:

“Product conformance and traceability is a requirement of this Contract. The Contractor shall complete and submit 2 copies of the Certificate of Conformity (CoC), attached at Annex [XX], when releasing products to the Authority. One copy is to be sent to the Authority and the other packaged with the goods when dispatched to the specified delivery point." Where more that one type of item is being released on a single CoC, the Contractor shall refer to the Contract Schedule to identify those items that require traceability data to be recorded on the CoC.”

In cases where the contract schedule contains more than one item, any items requiring traceability information are to be suitably identified to enable the supplier to distinguish them from non traceability items.

The CoC is a dual-purpose form, separated into two parts to clearly distinguish the supplier’s ‘Statement of Quality’ from the GQAR’s statement of ‘Government Quality Assurance (GQA)’.

Where the CoC is associated with a contract not subject to GQA arrangements, the CoC will comprise of Part I only, and will be completed and issued by the supplier.

When GQA has been arranged for a particular contract, the GQAR is responsible for completing Part II of the CoC following completion of Part I by the supplier. The GQAR will however only complete and sign Part II of a CoC where:

there is a contractual requirement for the supplier to submit a CoC, and
the GQAR has been specifically requested in the Request for Government Quality Assurance (RGQA) to sign the CoC.

It should be noted that the GQAR signature on a CoC does not mean acceptance of the supplies but is a declaration that the supplies, as identified on the CoC, have been subject to GQA as agreed between the Delegator and GQAR (Delegatee).

Change History

Any future amendments to this guidance will be recorded here.

There are currently no amendments to report.