Standards Development & Harmonisation
Chain of Custody Review 2016/2017
The 2017 Chain of Custody standard has now been published.
From August 2016 to September 2017, we undertook a major review of the Chain of Custody (CoC), the voluntary standard against which RJC members must demonstrate independently verified conformance to achieve certification.
The RJC Standards Committee agreed the final revisions to the CoC Standard and Guidance, as the culmination of an 18-month multi-stakeholder consensus-building process. The Standards Committee’s recommendation to approve the revisions was accepted by the RJC Executive Committee and subsequently by the Board.
The objectives of the Review were to update the Chain of Custody, as well as its supporting documents and training. RJC has logged issues and comments received since the publication of the Chain of Custody in 2012 and worked with a wide range of stakeholders on key issues for the standards revision.
Below is an archive of the revision process. Please email consultation@responsiblejewellery.com with any questions you may have.
Revision Process
This comment period is now closed.
The comment period is to invite input from all interested parties on the proposed process, scope and timelines for the review of the CoC standard. This is outlined in the Public Summary document
This comment period is now closed.
This comment period is to invite input on the proposed changes to the CoC standard from all interested parties. These are outlined in the Proposed Changes (draft 1) document.
This comment period is now closed.
This comment period is to invite input from all interested parties on changes to the CoC Standard and guidance. The changes from the previous version are outlined in a summary document. The full revised CoC Standard, includes key guidance sections.
FAQs
The RJC’s Code of Practices (COP) provides a common standard for responsible business practices and is mandatory for all RJC members. The CoC standard builds on and complements the COP, and is voluntary for RJC members. The CoC standard provides requirements for the creation of a Chain-of-Custody for responsibly-sourced precious metals in the jewellery supply chain (gold and platinum group metals). It specifies requirements for a business to segregate CoC material and to provide relevant information supporting the provenance of CoC materials when it is transferred or sold to other parties along the chain. CoC material may be purchased and sold between different businesses certified as conforming with the CoC standard, thereby enabling credible claims to be made to customers and consumers about the responsible sourcing of precious metals.
The first version of the RJC CoC standard was published in 2012. With now over 30 RJC Member entities certified against the standard and four years of implementation experience, a review of the standard is due. This is in line with ISEAL Alliance Codes of Good Practice.
The review will include a gap analysis to identify the full scope of changes. The cross-recognitions the RJC has with other standards (such as the Conflict Free Sourcing Initiative (CFSI) and the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA)’s Responsible Gold Guidance (RGG)) will continue to be an important part of CoC certification process, and these will be updated as part of the review. An independent assessment of alignment with OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas, will also inform potential changes to the CoC standard. Another area for review is the criteria for eligibility of CoC material with a view to increase the volume of certified CoC material entering the jewellery supply chain.
Oversight of the review and decision-making lies with the RJC’s multi-stakeholder Standards Committee. This Committee is made up of equal numbers of industry and non-industry stakeholders and includes representatives from each part of the jewellery supply chain as well as individuals from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society, auditors, and experts.
The consultation process also includes:
– the opportunity for public comment via the RJC website and dedicated email address throughout the revision process;
– a program of targeted outreach and consultation to be determined by the RJC management team in conjunction with the Standards Committee;
– the public release of at least one draft of the revised Standard.
Decision-making for the standards review is based on the ISEAL Alliance Code of Good Practice for Standard Setting. The process follows a consensus-seeking approach, and where consensus cannot be reached on a decision of significance, a vote is taken amongst the Committee Members. This process in outlined in further detail within the RJC Governance Handbook.
Please continue with your plans. The RJC CoC standard will remain voluntary and there will be an appropriate phase-in period to allow for those previously certified against the 2012 CoC to transition to the new version of the standard. The details pertaining to the phase-in period will be communicated to members once the new version of the CoC standard has been finalised.
If you have any concerns, please email consultationCoC@responsiblejewellery.com
If you wish to request a hard copy of a 2017 CoC document please send your request to: consultation@responsiblejewellery.com. Please note that there will be reasonable administrative cost involved in having hard copies produced. The hard copies documents will only be available in English.
For further information please see the top of this page to review the 3 rounds of consultation conducted.
As a full member of ISEAL alliance we follow their setting social and environmental standards code V.6.0. This requires the RJC to conduct a full review of the standard every 5 years, or sooner. There currently is not a set date for the next revision of the Chain of Custody standard, however this will be conducted no later than 2022. When a revision is required a notification will be made on the standards development section of the RJC website.
