Industry Position Statement:
Over 2.4 million
organisations across the globe benefit from certification against management
systems standards agreed and published by the International Organisation for
Standardisation (ISO). The most widely adopted of these is ISO 9001, the
management systems requirements standard for quality, the latest version of
which was published in 2015.
Using management systems standards can help organisations
streamline processes, improve efficiency, mitigate business risk, manage growth
and drive continual improvement. And certification against these
internationally recognised standards can reduce trade barriers, meeting and
exceeding customer tender requirements and providing market differentiation. As
such, certification is a vital business tool offering a degree of assurance to
customers and suppliers.
Certification is offered by conformity assessment, or
certification, bodies (CABs) which may or may not be accredited by national accreditation
bodies (NABs).
Accreditation is the formal recognition by an independent
NAB that a CAB is competent to perform conformity assessments. Such recognition
is based on the CAB being able to demonstrate its competence, consistency and
impartiality, according to the relevant international standards, in assessing
organisations’ ability to meet the requirements of recognised ISO standards.
Although it is not mandatory for CABs to be accredited by
an NAB, those that are accredited are able to demonstrate that they have been
rigorously assessed by an independent, recognised authority against
internationally recognised standards.
Non-accredited CABs are not subject to this independent
scrutiny. This does not necessarily mean that a non-accredited CAB is not a
competent, impartial and capable organisation. However, it cannot
demonstrate that it has the competence, capability and impartiality required to
conduct conformity assessments in a universally accepted way.
A consequence of this is that many organisations which
require their suppliers’ management systems to be certified will only recognise
accredited certification.
The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS), the sole
government recognised NAB in the UK, has issued approximately 3,200
accreditations to over 2,700 conformity assessment bodies. These accreditations
apply to a wide range of products, services, processes, systems, bodies and
persons from all industry sectors, adding an estimated £1bn annually to the UK
economy [Source: University of Birkbeck].
The UK government provides guidance
and information on accreditation and conformity assessment including that;
“The UK government expects UK based
conformity assessment bodies to:
- be compliant with European
legislation
- seek accreditation from the United
Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS)”
Furthermore, it “recommends UK businesses, government, and local authorities that need third party conformity assessment services to use services from conformity assessment bodies accredited by a national accreditation body.”
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/conformity-assessment-and-accreditation-policy-the-uks-quality-infrastructure
In addition, the UK government guidance on accreditation and
conformity assessment states that: “the
only ‘authoritative statement’ of competence, that has public authority status
– providing the last level of control in the conformity assessment chain is
from the UK’s national accreditation body, UKAS.”
Consistent with this guidance, those
organisations listed below advise that organisations requiring
conformity assessment should use the services only of CABs which are accredited
by the national accreditation body.
