11.8 Inquiry

The organisation shall define an inquiry plan appropriate to the purpose, consequence of omission, available evidence, applicable legal threshold and project stage.

The inquiry plan shall identify:

matters to be established;

source categories to be considered;

selection and stopping criteria;

geographic and temporal scope;

responsibilities;

quality and corroboration requirements;

escalation criteria;

review triggers; and

evidence and records required.

For each material inquiry, the organisation shall record:

subject and purpose;

source or party consulted;

date and method;

request or question;

response or outcome;

documents or evidence received;

effect on existing records;

follow-up required; and

closure status.

The organisation shall be able to demonstrate why the inquiry performed was sufficient for the defined requirement. A contractual or statutory expression such as “reasonable inquiry” or “diligent inquiry” shall be interpreted in the applicable jurisdictional or procedural profile and shall not be assumed to have a universal meaning.