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Definition

RBA Validated Assessment Program

The RBA Validated Assessment Program is an independent, site-level assessment that checks a facility's labor, health and safety, environmental, ethics and supply-chain management practices against the RBA Code.

What is the RBA Validated Assessment Program?

The Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) Validated Assessment Program (VAP) checks one facility against the RBA Code and local law. RBA-approved independent firms assess the site; the RBA sets the protocol. The current VAP Standard v8.0.2 covers labor, health and safety, environment, ethics and supply-chain management systems.

Why does the RBA Validated Assessment Program matter to you?

A customer may request a VAP for a named factory and ask you to share its Validated Assessment Report in RBA-Online. Missing wage records, blocked site access or a mismatch between the requested and assessed facility can produce findings or delay the report. A VAP report is facility-specific. RBA recognition is separate and is available only to eligible manufacturing facilities that close identified issues.

How does the RBA Validated Assessment Program work?

You start the request in RBA-Online. Before the visit, complete the Facility Risk Self-Assessment Questionnaire, confirm the dates and prepare requested records. Assessors inspect the site, review documents and interview workers and managers. The report classifies findings as priority, major, minor, risk of non-conformance, opportunity for improvement or conformance. A corrective action plan records root causes, actions, prevention, dates and status.

What mistakes should you avoid?

  • Treating a site report as a company-wide certificate.
  • Preparing policies without matching payroll, hours, permits and training records.
  • Coaching workers or restricting confidential interviews.
  • Calling report sharing customer endorsement.

Is an RBA VAP mandatory?

It is not a general legal requirement. It becomes a commercial requirement when a customer names it in onboarding, a contract or corrective-action work. Confirm the facility, assessment type and deadline.

What should you prepare for an RBA VAP?

Keep at least 12 months of general records and 24 months of payroll, wage, deduction and benefit records available on site. Prepare the facility SAQ, workforce details, permits, policies, training logs and access to production, storage and worker areas.

Example

Hypothetical example: Suppose a plastics moulder in Japan is asked to complete a VAP for one factory employing 240 people. That is 10 people below the VAP Standard's 250-person line for less formal documentation, but the policies and procedures must still be understood and followed.

Before the assessment, the factory assembles 12 months of working-hours records and 24 months of payroll, wage, deduction and benefit records. It discovers that payroll for 18 agency workers is held by the labour provider and is not available on site. The factory obtains those records before the assessment starts, checks the overtime entries against the working-hours records and gives assessors access to production, storage and worker-interview areas. This preparation does not predict the VAP result, recognition or customer decision.

Where it comes up

RBA VAP Standard v8.0.2 reviewee preparation, Facility Risk SAQ, dates, documents, site access and wage recordsRBA VAP Standard v8.0.2, section 8.4.1Official sourceRBA VAP Standard document review, record sampling and 12-month and 24-month record periodsRBA VAP Standard v8.0.2, sections 9.3.4.1-9.3.4.5Official sourceRBA VAP finding severity and corrective action plan contentsRBA VAP Standard v8.0.2, sections 10.1.3 and 12.1.3Official source

Related terms

Supplier self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ)

A supplier self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ) is a supplier-completed form that tests named environmental, labour, ethics and governance practices against supporting documents for a specific company or site.

Supplier code of conduct

A supplier code of conduct sets the labour, health and safety, environmental, ethics, record-keeping, and subcontractor rules a buyer expects its suppliers to follow and be able to prove.

SMETA audit

A SMETA audit is a site-level assessment of labour, health and safety, environment and business ethics against local law and the ETI Base Code, with findings recorded in an audit report and corrective action plan.

Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence

Corporate sustainability due diligence is an ongoing, risk-based process for finding and addressing harm to people or the environment connected to a company's operations and business relationships.

Sources

  • Responsible Business Alliance

    VAP v8.0.2 scope, process, preparation, record periods, finding severity, corrective actions and report validity

    2026-08-21

  • Responsible Business Alliance

    Independent third-party assessment, on-site document review, interviews and site survey, report sharing and separate recognition after identified issues are closed

    2026-08-21

  • Responsible Business Alliance

    VAP scheduling, report sharing and corrective-action management in RBA-Online

    2026-08-21

Last verified 2026-08-21

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RBA Validated Assessment Program Definition | Keslio