What is Accreditation
What is Accreditation
Webster defines accreditation as “to give trust or confidence to: to vouch for; to recommend; to furnish
with credentials, as an envoy or ambassador”
According to ISO17011:2004 Accreditation means: Third–party attestation related to a conformity assessment body conveying formal demonstration of its competence to carry out specific assessment tasks.
Accreditation is an endorsement of a conformity assessment body’s (CAB’s) competence, credibility, independence and integrity in carrying out its conformity assessment activities. Accreditation is the formal attestation that a model or simulation is acceptable for use for a specific purpose. Accreditation is conferred by the organization like British Member Quality Accreditation Council (UK), best positioned to make the judgment that the model or simulation in question is acceptable. That organization may be an operational user, the program office, or a contractor, depending upon the purposes intended.
Organizations that issue credentials or certify third parties against official standards are themselves formally accredited by accreditation bodies (such as British Member Quality Accreditation Council (UK)); hence they are sometimes known as “accredited certification bodies”.
The accreditation process ensures that their certification practices are acceptable, typically meaning that they are competent to test and certify third parties, behave ethically and employ suitable quality assurance.
The accreditation process determines, in the public interest, the technical competence and integrity of organizations such as those offering testing, calibration and certification services (commonly referred to as conformity assessment). ISO’s formal definition of accreditation is “third party attestation related to a conformity assessment body conveying formal demonstration of its competence to carry out specific conformity assessment tasks.” (ISO/ IEC 17000:2004) Certification is “third party attestation related to products, processes, systems or persons.”
(ISO/ IEC 17000:2004).
British Member Quality Accreditation Council (UK) only accredits organisations who provide certification and/ or inspection services. These organisations are known as Conformity Assessment Bodies (or CABs).
British Member Quality Accreditation Council (UK) Accredited CABs provide certification and inspection services to organisations. Common schemes that CABs certify are quality management systems (QMS) based on the ISO 9001 standard, and environmental management systems (EMS) based on the ISO 14001 standard.
Requirements for Accreditation Bodies accrediting Conformity Assessment Bodies has been contained in ISO 17011:2004 standard. British Member Quality Accreditation Council (UK) being a responsible and globally recognized for its fair practices, self- complies to the said standard.
Who can be Accredited ?
British Member Quality Accreditation Council (UK) accreditation activities British Member Quality Accreditation Council (UK) provides accreditations to conformity assessment bodies (CAB). These bodies consist of laboratories, certification and inspection bodies, providers of proficiency tests and reference material producers. A CAB may be accredited by British Member Quality Accreditation Council (UK) if it meets the requirements of the corresponding international standards.
Accreditation activities of British Member Quality Accreditation Council (UK)
Laboratories
Testing and Calibration Laboratories ISO/IEC 17025
Medical Laboratories ISO 15189
Inspection Bodies
ISO/IEC 17020
Certification Bodies
For Person ISO/IEC 17024
For Management Systems ISO/IEC 17021
For Products ISO/IEC 17065 (or EN 45011)
Validation and Verification Bodies
ISO 14065
Providers of Proficiency Tests
ISO/IEC 17043
Producers of Reference Materials
ISO Guide 34
Accredited Once, Accepted Everywhere
The international harmonisation of these standards warrants that the accreditations are carried out on a global basis according to the same criteria. As a result of these harmonised standards, and thanks to international agreements, the assessment services of bodies accredited in Germany are accepted in many European and non-European countries.
This ability to overcome technical barriers to trade facilitates cross-border trade and warrants the acceptance of conformity assessments results at an international level without requiring further inspections.