In P7, the Social Audit section is a non-critical scoring section – meaning it contributes to the overall score of the audit, but it is not an essential requirement to pass. As a new section, this element is being phased in to allow leather manufacturers time to prepare well in advance and have their social audit before their P7 audit. The LWG intends to increase the importance of this section, planning to make it critical in P8, which will be released according to our roadmap, expected as early as Q3 2022.
To meet the requirements of Protocol 7, Section 3 Social Audit, a tannery must have undergone an LWG recognised social assessment. For a social audit or certification scheme to be recognised it must be assessed as meeting the LWG social assessment requirements. The intention is to adopt the use of industry recognised benchmarks, criteria and standards wherever possible while allowing for as broad a range of scheme recognition as possible.