Audience
The standard is written for suppliers, procurers, developers, maintainers, auditors, operators, users and managers, including in-house teams.
What clause 1.7 asks
Suppliers, buyers, builders, maintainers, auditors, operators, users and managers are all in the intended readership, whether they sit in a supplier, a buyer or an in-house team. Researchers and data specialists are named too. The breadth is deliberate: buying, building, running and checking a system are separate jobs, and the bias work touches each of them.
Why it matters
A bias programme that sits only with the model team will miss the procurement decision that set the data, the operations team that sees the drift, and the auditor who needs the record. The audience clause is a mandate to build a cross-functional group. It also tells a supplier that a procurer can hold it to the standard through a contract, and tells a procurer that its own choices are part of the subject.
What good looks like
Build a role matrix with four columns: the role, the clause it owns, the evidence it signs, and the deputy. Cover procurement, legal, data engineering, model development, operations, user research and internal audit. Give each role a short briefing on the standard and the register. Review the matrix when the delivery model changes, for example when a vendor takes over part of the pipeline.
Evidence an assessor asks for
The assessor will ask who owns each clause output. A matrix with one owner for everything is a signal that the work is not really distributed.
- Role matrix Roles, owned clauses, signed evidence and named deputies
- Briefing record The date and content of each role's briefing on the standard
- Procurement note The clause the supplier is held to and the evidence the supplier must provide
- Audit access record How internal audit obtains the profile and the evaluation record
Where it commonly fails
- Only the data science team is involved
- Procurement signs the supplier contract without the bias clauses attached
- Internal audit cannot obtain the profile without a special request
What to do before publication
Complete the role matrix before the clause 4 workshop. The workshop needs the procurer, the operator and the auditor in the room.