Laboratory Accreditation to ISO 17025

ISO 17025 (formerly ISO/IEC Guide 25) is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization to specify the requirements for a laboratory to carry out tests or calibrations.  The main pillars of the system are independence, handling of documents, written procedures, traceability of measurements to international standard values and the expression of the uncertainty of measurement. Other key areas are training of personnel, continuous improvement, external and internal audits, and that calibrations must be by ISO 17025 accredited calibration labs.

The accreditation is awarded by an organisation such as UKAS in the UK, ENAS in the UAE, DAC in Dubai, or IAS in the USA, etc. Most countries have at least one accreditation body, as they are called, which may be a government organisation but not necessarily. What qualifies them to award accreditations is membership in the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), or a regional subgroup.  Member bodies agree on the competence of each other through a “Mutual Recognition Agreement” (MRA), sometimes called a multi-lateral agreement (MLA) in other similar organizations.  Being a ‘signatory to the MRA’ is important for international recognition – for example, accreditation in one country by an accreditation body which is a member of ILAC but not a signatory of the MRA, may not be acceptable in another country, particularly where the domestic accreditation body is a signatory.

UKAS is generally recognized as a leader among accreditation bodies and we have therefore chosen to be accredited by them in order to have the widest possible acceptance among our clients in the larger region.  Their assessors visit us annually to audit the work under our scope of accreditation, and to ensure we are not only maintaining standards but improving as well.  The tests which are included in our current scope of accreditation are listed on the UKAS website.  Go to www.ukas.com and search for 4439 under Testing Labs to see our current scope of accreditation at any time.  You will see that we are accredited for a large number of curtain wall tests and fire tests to a range of standards from the UK, the US and Europe.