UKAS has been working with the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) and representative bodies such as the Independent International Organisation for Certification (IIOC) and IQNet, to explore how standards and accredited conformity assessment can better understand the issues and opportunities faced by insurers, in order to identify the potential for closer collaboration to deliver greater mutual benefit.

Following a seminar held in London in November last year to explore the role and benefits of standards and accreditation in managing risk for the insurance industry, work is underway to follow up opportunities with insurance associations to identify areas where insurers can recognise the value of standards and accreditation to support their management of risk, to evaluate premium and coverage, and to use statistical analysis to project losses within a given class. Work will also explore opportunities to develop standards for the insurance industry with a focus on product development, product information and processes in wholesale insurance.

To support this work and to set out our aims, UKAS has provided input to a briefing note: ‘Standards, conformity assessment, accreditation and insurance – an opportunity for collaboration’.

Registration is now open for the JCTLM Workshop on ‘Accurate Results for Patient Care 2017’ in Paris, France from the 4th – 5th of December 2017.

Click here to register.

The signatory status of the Papua New Guinea Laboratory Accreditation Scheme, PNGLAS to the ILAC MRA for the accreditation of testing laboratories using ISO/IEC 17025 was suspended on 14 August 2017.  This suspension is at the request of PNGLAS to the APLAC MRA Council and follows the APLAC MRA Council’s decision to grant temporary voluntary suspension status of PNGLAS to the APLAC MRA.

PNGLAS has confirmed that they will be advise the APLAC MRA Council later this year when PNGLAS complies with the requirements of ISO/IEC 17011.  The evaluation due in September 2017 will subsequently be re-scheduled. Once the evaluation has been completed, all the corrective actions satisfactorily addressed and the evaluation report reviewed, a decision will be made to re-instate the signatory status of PNGLAS to the APLAC MRA and consequently the ILAC MRA.

Federal Service for Accreditation (RusAccreditation) is now a Full Member of ILAC. 

RusAccreditation has become a signatory to the ILAC MRA for testing (ISO/IEC 17025) and calibration (ISO/IEC 17025).  RusAccreditation originally joined ILAC as an Associate Member in 2013, and we are now pleased to welcome RusAccreditation as a Full Member of ILAC.

The full list of signatories to the ILAC MRA is available here.

ILAC P4:06/2017 ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement: Policy and Management.
This document provides details on the objectives, foundation, management, procedures and decisions associated with the ILAC MRA. The revision of this document includes criteria for competence of those involved in the evaluation report review process and details for the extension of the ILAC MRA to include the accreditation of proficiency testing providers and reference material producers.

ILAC P5:06/2017 ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement: Scope and Obligations.
This document describes the elements of a Mutual Recognition Arrangement for testing and calibration laboratory and inspection body accreditation. The revision includes the policy for transition periods for the implementation of revised standards covered by the ILAC MRA and information relating to the extension of the ILAC MRA to include the accreditation of proficiency testing providers.

These publications are available here.

ILAC G27:06/2017 – Guidance on measurements performed as part of an inspection process has been published and is available from the Publications section of the ILAC website.

This document is intended to provide guidance on measurements carried out as part of an inspection activity for both inspection bodies and the accreditation bodies assessing inspection bodies.  The key objective of this guidance is to help ensure the validity of the measurements performed as part of inspections carried out in accordance with ISO/IEC 17020.  It also provides examples via case studies of measurements carried out in inspection that may need to take into consideration the requirements included in ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO 15189.

The ILAC MRA 2016 Annual Report has just been published!

Similarly to the previous years, it provides information on the activities carried out as part of the peer evaluation process in 2016 in order to ensure that both regulators and consumers of laboratory and inspection data, are able to maintain confidence in the results produced under the ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA).

The ILC MRA 2016 Annual Report is available here. 

Entidad Nacional de Acreditacion (ENAC), the accreditation body in Spain that is a signatory to the ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) has produced a video in Spanish to celebrate World Accreditation Day 2017 – “Delivering Confidence in Construction and the Built Environment”, located here.

ENAC has also provided an English translation of the video available here.

After on-going discussions with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), ILAC and IAF have managed to secure an update to the organisation’s trade recommendations to include references to national accreditation systems and the global arrangements. ILAC and IAF have actively participated in the UNECE Working Party on Regulatory Cooperation & Standardisation Policies which works to:

• Promote the use of standards by policy-makers and businesses as a tool for reducing technical barriers to trade, promote increased resilience to disasters, foster innovation and improve governance.
• Promote the use of standards in the implementation of UN-wide goals, including the implementation of the Agenda 2030 and the Sendai framework for action

16 UNECE recommendations have been adopted to address standardisation and regulatory issues. They set out a good practice regarding regulatory cooperation, metrology, standards and norms, conformity assessment and market surveillance.

Further information regarding these recommendations is available here.

Accreditation Affairs Section/Public Authority for Industry (KAAS-PAI), Kuwait, is welcomed as an Affiliate member of ILAC.

We welcome KAAS-PAI and look forward to working with our KAAS-PAI colleagues.