Clause 10.2: Continual improvement
The organization has to keep improving the suitability, adequacy and effectiveness of the records system.
What clause 10.2 asks
The organization has to keep improving the suitability, adequacy and effectiveness of the records system. The 2019 edition simplified the earlier list of inputs and removed the requirement to prioritise improvement actions by the risk assessment, but the duty remains: improvement has to be a deliberate activity with a result, not a statement in the policy. The evidence is a change that made the system fit its purpose better, work more reliably or produce more useful evidence.
Improvement has to be a deliberate activity with a measured result. Routine maintenance is not continual improvement, and an objective carried forward for years is evidence that nothing changed.
Reading it in practice
Continual improvement needs a baseline. Without one, a change cannot be shown to have improved anything. Choose a measure from 9.1, record the current value, make the change and measure again. An improvement that cannot be described in those terms is maintenance.
The third edition is at stage 50.00 and its clause text is not public. No public draft wording. The 2019 edition simplified the 2011 list of inputs and removed the requirement to prioritize improvements by the risk assessment, but the duty remains.
Status: not shown in the public record. The 2019 requirement above is the one a certificate is issued against. No draft requirement is asserted.
Evidence for clause 10.2
Expect an improvement register with the opportunity, the change and the measured effect, and management review decisions that funded the change.
- Continual improvement Improvement register with the opportunity, the change made and the measured effect
- Continual improvement Before and after evidence for a process or system improvement
- Continual improvement Management review decisions that funded an improvement
Where clause 10.2 commonly fails
- Improvement claimed from routine maintenance with no effect measured
- The same improvement objective carried forward for years
What to do about clause 10.2 before the revision
Pick one improvement that will show an effect within 90 days. Record the baseline, the change and the result. Close the improvement objective that has been open for more than a year.
Read across from clause 10.2
← Clause 10.1 | Clause 4.1.1 →
Open the full index. The revision record shows the public stage record and the proven 2011 to 2019 changes.
Source for clause 10.2: ISO 30301:2019, ISO 30301:2019, Clause 10.2, retrieved 22 October 2026. The requirement, evidence and gaps are written from our clause record; the draft status rests on the ISO/PRF 30301 page 89772. Every source.