The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) is the sole national

accreditation body Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...

recognised by the

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to assess the competence of organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services. It evaluates these conformity assessment bodies and then accredits them where they are found to meet relevant internationally specified standards.

Functions

*UKAS assesses conformity assessment bodies for competence against internationally recognised standards *UKAS accredits (recognising competence of organisations to provide conformity assessment tasks) *UKAS issues accreditation certificates and schedules showing the limits of the accreditation for a particular conformity assessment body and permits the use of the UKAS mark on accredited certification provided that it is accompanied by the UKAS Accreditation Number of the accredited body. The validity of an accreditation should be checked on the UKAS website. UKAS certificates do not bear an expiry date.

History

UKAS was set up in 1995 under a memorandum of understanding with the British government (between UKAS and the then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry). It resulted from the merger in 1995 of NAMAS (National Measurement Accreditation Service) and NACCB (National Accreditation Council for Certification Bodies). NAMAS was itself the result of a merger in 1985 of NATLAS (National Testing Laboratory Accreditation Scheme) formed in 1981 and BCS (British Calibration Service) formed in 1966.

Structure

UKAS is a non-profit-distributing private company, it is operated in the public interest as a company limited by guarantee. It employs 190 staff and over 250 technical external assessors / experts. UKAS has members (instead of shareholders) who represent those who have an interest in accreditation – national and local government, business and industry, purchasers, users and quality managers. The present members are: *

Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy The secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The incumbent is a memb ...

* The Association of British Certification Bodies * British Measurement and Testing Association *

Confederation of British Industry The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is a UK business organisation, which in total claims to speak for 190,000 businesses, this is made up of around 1,500 direct members and 188,500 non-members. The non members are represented through the 1 ...

* The Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs *

Federation of Small Businesses The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is a UK business organisation representing small and medium-sized businesses. It was formed in 1974 as the National Federation of Self Employed (NFSE). The current name for the organisation was adopted in ...

* The

Local Authorities Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

Coordinating Body of Regulatory Services *

Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS), formerly the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply, is a global professional body working for the procurement and supply profession in many regions of the world. It promotes best pra ...

* The Chartered Quality Institute * The Safety Assessment Federation *

Food Standards Agency The Food Standards Agency is a non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for protecting public health in relation to food in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is led by a board ap ...

Defence Procurement Agency The Defence Procurement Agency (DPA), was an Executive Agency of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence responsible for the acquisition of materiel, equipment and services, for the British armed forces. Led by the Chief of Defence Procuremen ...

* Health and Safety Executive * Public Health Laboratory Services *

British Retail Consortium The British Retail Consortium (or BRC) is a trade association for retail businesses in the United Kingdom. History The British Retail Consortium was formed in January 1992 with the merger of the British Retailers' Association and the Reta ...

In 2010 UKAS acquired the CPA (Clinical Pathology Accreditation) from the medical royal colleges. It started ISAS (Imaging Services Accreditation Scheme) for the

Royal College of Radiologists The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) is the professional body responsible for the specialties of clinical oncology and clinical radiology throughout the United Kingdom. Its role is to advance the science and practice of radiology and onco ...

and the College of Radiographers.

Standards covered

* ISO/IEC 17025 * ISO 15189 * ISO/IEC 17020 * ISO/IEC 17021 ** ISO 9001 **

ISO 14001 ISO 14000 is a family of standards related to environmental management that exists to help organizations (a) minimize how their operations (processes, etc.) negatively affect the environment (i.e. cause adverse changes to air, water, or land); (b) ...

ISO 13485 ISO 13485 ''Medical devices -- Quality management systems -- Requirements for regulatory purposes'' is a voluntary standard, published by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for the first time in 1996, and contains a comprehensive ...

** ISO 22000 **

ISO 45001 ISO 45001 is an ISO standard for management systems of occupational health and safety (OHS), published in March 2018. The goal of ISO 45001 is the reduction of occupational injuries and diseases, including promoting and protecting physical and ...

** ISO/IEC 27001 **

ISO 50001 ISO 50001 Energy management systems - Requirements with guidance for use, is an international standard created by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It supports organizations in all sectors to use energy more efficiently th ...

** ISO 55001 **

ISO 22301 ISO 22301:2019, ''Security and resilience – Business continuity management systems – Requirements'', is a management system standard published by International Organization for Standardization that specifies requirements to plan, establish, im ...

* ISO/IEC 17024 * ISO/IEC 17065 * ISO/IEC 17043 * ISO 17034 * ISO/IEC 14065 * ISO/IEC 17029 * ISO 20387

References

External links