United Kingdom Accreditation Service - UKAS News

UKAS is the National Accreditation Body for the United Kingdom. UKAS is appointed by the government, to assess and accredit organizations that provide services, including certification, testing, inspection, and calibration. From the beginning of the pandemic, UKAS has been working with the government to provide advice on quality assurance and accreditation of laboratories performing COVID-19 testing including laboratories that have been supporting the national testing provision (NHS Test and Tr...

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development sets out 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The SDGs aim to address social imbalances, develop sustainable economies, and slow the rate of climate change. Achieving these ambitious goals will require a collaborative effort from governments, industries, businesses, and consumers alike. Accredited conformity assessment Accredited conformity assessment against internationally recognized standards is a useful tool that can help organizatio...

UKAS is pleased to announce the accreditation of the following SSIP SSIP-Registered Members as inspection bodies under ISO 17020: 2012. CQMS PQS The accreditations follow the successful completion of their assessment against ISO 17020. Safety Schemes in Procurement SSIP (Safety Schemes in Procurement) and UKAS have been working on a pilot assessment program for a small number of SSIP Registered Members. The results of the pilot will be collated and fed back to SSIP. The SSIP Registered...

UKAS is delighted to be able to continue to support the Chief Scientific Officer’s (CSO) Knowledge Transfer Partnership Program for 2021. Knowledge Transfer Partnership Program CSO’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership Program offers a unique opportunity for clinical leaders The program will be launched at the CSO Conference. Come along and learn more about how UKAS is working with NHS England, NPL, and UK NML ChemBio to share knowledge and support the development of innovative ideas t...

The Government has announced an extension to the date ending recognition of the CE Mark in Great Britain. CE Marked goods may continue to be placed on the GB market until 1st January 2023. This extension means that all product sectors have until 1st January 2023 to prepare to use the UKCA Mark, except Medical Devices. The UKCA Mark can be used and the Government is encouraging businesses to start using it as soon as possible, with it becoming mandatory for placing goods on the market...

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has approved the first UK GDPR certification scheme criteria. Recently UKAS accredited Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) has developed criteria for two schemes relating to age assurance and children’s online privacy. This is a great example of UKAS working with regulators to bring important improvements in safety and child protection in innovative emerging sectors.

Holding accreditation provides many benefits to a wide range of organizations. In addition to demonstrating technical competence to the local market, it can also provide confidence to overseas markets through multilateral agreements (MLAs) whereby the reports and certificates issued by bodies accredited by signatories of these accreditation agreements receive global recognition. This benefit is essential to UKAS customers operating on the global market, so it is vital that UKAS retains its EA,...

UKAS is pleased to report that the UKAS IAF Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) scope has recently been extended in the area of management systems certification, with two food/feed schemes being added at Levels 4 and 5: FSSC 22000 is a Food Safety Management System sector scheme that builds upon ISO 22000. UKAS currently accredits 10 Certification Bodies to provide this service. FAMI-QS is a proprietary management system standard in its own right for the specialty feed ingre...

Following the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, the Government introduced the UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) regime, as part of the domestic legal framework introduced for goods being placed on the GB market. Review of the UKAS publication GEN 5 As the UKCA regime has developed, a review of the UKAS publication GEN 5 has been undertaken, leading to some updates to the latest edition of this document. Changes include updated names and contact details of the Competent Authorities and the expansi...

Organizations have long understood the many potential business benefits of holding certification to an international management system, such as the widely recognized ISO 9001 quality, ISO 14001 environmental, and ISO 45001 occupational health and safety standards. More than being a certificate to hang on the wall, certification is a powerful business tool, providing a degree of certainty in uncertain times. Externally, certification offers the potential to lower barriers to trade by opening doo...

The National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) partners, BSI, National Physical Laboratory (NPL), and UKAS with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy have published the Standards for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, an action plan to unlock the value of standards for innovation. Joint Action Plan This joint Action Plan is intended to enable the NQI’s activities across standards, measurement, and accreditation to support innovation and technological change for the fourth...

UKAS is delighted to announce that Lorraine Turner, UKAS Accreditation Director, has been appointed as a Member of the newly formed Interim Industry Competence Committee (IICC). The formation of the IICC coincides with the recent announcement of the Building Safety Bill in Parliament by Robert Jenrick MP, Secretary of State for Housing. The Bill outlines a program of actions aimed at preventing a recurrence of the problems that contributed to the Grenfell Tower fire. Foremost amongst these meas...

One of UKAS’ current Strategic Priorities is to develop a secure, online and free-to-use database of certifications that have been issued by the accredited Certification Bodies. This database will present information on each organization holding accredited certification from a UKAS-accredited Certification Body, including details of the organization, scope and the awarding Certification Body.  As such, the database will allow organizations, public bodies and Government agencies that...

With the travel and social contact restrictions imposed around the world as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, accreditation and conformity assessment bodies turned to technology in order to continue their work remotely. Remote Audit/Assessment Survey A survey is now being run jointly by IAF, ILAC and ISO to better understand the views of the conformity assessment community and those that rely on the results of conformity assessment, on the use of remote techniques for audit/assessment/ev...

UKAS has welcomed the introduction of the Building Safety Bill in Parliament this week and in particular the role that accreditation is expected to play in ensuring the competence of certain key duty-holder roles. In an accompanying Factsheet to the Bill, the government has said: “The industry should continue to develop sector-specific competence frameworks which can be used to assess the competence of individuals. Organizations wishing to assess individuals against these frameworks...

Over the course of the past seven months, UKAS has been building on the early success of the Risk-Based project, working with technical experts and industry stakeholders to tailor it to meet the needs of the Construction Testing customers. The approach has been developed with input from the assessment managers, executive team, and advisory committees and has been designed to: Standardizes and structures considerations to improve the consistency of outcomes for customers. Move away from a on...

The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is recognized as being one of the most comprehensive and ambitious greenhouse gas emissions monitoring, measurement and reporting programs in the world. All emissions reports submitted to the EU ETS must be verified by an organization that is accredited against the international ISO 14065 standard. In the UK, this scheme has been replaced by the UK Emissions Trading Scheme, based on the EU ETS requirements. Similar mandatory requirements for...

Assurance Services International (ASI) and the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the intention of bringing together UKAS accreditation and ASI assurance for future collaboration in the field of sustainability. ASI formalized an agreement with the German National Accreditation Body (NAB), Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle (DAkkS) earlier this year. UKAS and ASI partnership UKAS has established a framework for cooperation between ASI a...

The Fire Protection Association (FPA) is delighted to announce that it has been awarded UKAS accreditation to carry out fire tests on watermist systems to BS 8458: 2015 Fixed fire protection systems - residential and domestic watermist systems - code of practice for design and installation. automatic fire suppression systems It is proud to be heading the way as one of the first UK fire testing facilities accredited to offer this important British Standard test. The desire for automatic fire s...

When ISO announced on December 1st, 2017 that ISO/IEC 17025:2017, 'General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories', had been updated, the conformity assessment community was aware that this would be one of the largest scale transitions of an accreditation standard ever undertaken. ISO/IEC 17025 ISO/IEC 17025 is the most popular international reference standard ISO/IEC 17025 is the most popular international reference standard for ensuring the competence of tes...

The following announcement was made by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy at 17.00 on Saturday 27th March 2021: "The Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy has decided that the Green Home Grant Voucher scheme will cease taking new applications from 5 pm on 31st March. We will refocus efforts and funding on an alternative approach to maximize the delivery of home retrofits and benefits to consumers and businesses." Green Homes Grant voucher...

UKAS would like to draw customers' and stakeholders’ attention to the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) Call for Evidence on the UK Product Safety Framework which was published on 11 March. The Call for Evidence forms part of OPSS’ Review of the UK’s Product Safety framework. product safety framework Specifically, the Review wants to ensure that the product safety framework can adapt to new technologies and business models, and offer the opportunity to regulate...

UKAS is pleased to announce that it is joining forces with the ‘Building a Safer Future Charter’ by becoming a Corporate Supporter. The Charter was set up in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy when 72 people lost their lives in Britain’s worst residential fire since the end of WW2. The aim of the Charter is for organizations across the built-environment sector to commit to ensuring that buildings are safe for those living and working in them and to protect life by putting...

The Standards Council of Canada (SCC) and the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) have strengthened our cooperation arrangement, marking a new chapter in SCC and UKAS’s history of collaboration. The renewed agreement signals a refocus on Canada-UK relations within the context of accreditation and conformity assessments, which can play a key role in facilitating trade between Canada and the UK. Partnership with UKAS “Accreditation is a critical driver of economic prosperity...

As the UK finally cut its regulatory ties with the EU on 1st January 2021, this was marked by the introduction of new national regulations to ensure the continuation of the UK’s Quality Infrastructure. In particular, the regulation that governed accreditation within the European Union was amended by the Product Safety and Metrology, etc. (Amendment, etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/696) (as amended), which, together with the existing  Accreditation Regulations 2009 (S...

UKAS was pleased to contribute to CQI’s recent report ‘The Future of Work’, which explores the realities of “digital transformation” in the workplace. When considering the age of digitalization (often referred to as the 4th Industrial Revolution) ‘The Future of Work’ report considers the key drivers for change that were identified by CQI’s Research Advisory Panel.  These include: Big data and analytics Augmented reality Artificial i...

Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy and the points raised under the Dame Judith Hackitt review covering compliance and competence with independently tested products, the IFC scheme was developed with the Smoke Control Association (SCA). Developed to raise the importance of smoke control and the use of the EN/BSI and ISO standards, utilizing SCA guides for fire safety in buildings alongside of sprinklers. The IFC SDI 19 scheme is the first smoke control scheme accredited to UKAS. competence an...