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.

The signatory status of National Accreditation Authority (NAH), Hungary, has been extended to include inspection body accreditation using ISO/IEC 17020.

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

The Joint ISO-ILAC-IAF Communique on the Management System Requirements of ISO/IEC 17025, General Requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories, was first issued in 2005 and was recently updated in April 2017 to confirm that laboratories accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 operate a recognised quality management system.

More information is available here.

The 18^th International Metrology Congress (CIM) will be taking place from the 19th to 21^st of September 2017 in Paris, France. As usual, the annual meeting will discuss research & development as well as the best practices for measurement in the industry. Specifically, this year’s meeting will examine:

• Improvement of measurement, analysis and testing processes and control risks
• Following the evolution of techniques, advances in R&D and discovering industrial applications
• Exploring the exhibition showcasing innovations and solutions

Registration and further information is available here.

The latest edition of the bi-annual ILAC Newsletter, Issue 51 – April 2017, has now been published. The newsletter includes international, regional and national updates on accreditation and conformity assessment from ILAC members and liaisons, as well as the ILAC Chair and Secretariat.

Subscribe to the ILAC Newsletter now for future updates!

The signatory status of National Accreditation Body of Republica de Cuba (ONARC), Cuba, has been extended to include inspection body accreditation using ISO/IEC 17020.

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

The signatory status of Organismo Salvadoreño de Acreditación (OSA), El Salvador, has been extended to include the accreditation of calibration laboratories using ISO/IEC 17025.

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