Accreditation is an independent third-party attestation that a conformity assessment body – such as a laboratory, inspection body, certification body, or validation/verification body – is competent, impartial, and operates in accordance with international standards.
Typical certified areas in practice:
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Products – e.g., construction products (CPR), electrical equipment (LVD), personal protective equipment (PPE).
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Processes/services under schemes (ISO/IEC 17065) – e.g., installation and maintenance of equipment, waste management and treatment services, transport and logistics services.
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Management systems (ISO/IEC 17021-1) – e.g., ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environment), ISO/IEC 27001 (information security), ISO 50001 (energy), ISO 45001 (OH&S).
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Certification of persons (ISO/IEC 17024) – competency certification for specific professions/tasks.
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Validation and verification (ISO/IEC 17029; ISO 14065) – e.g., greenhouse-gas data verification (ETS, etc.).
Accreditation demonstrates that the conformity assessment body (laboratory, inspection body, certification body, validation/verification body) is competent, independent and impartial. Within the EU, confidence is underpinned by the EA MLA, while international acceptance is supported by the ILAC MRA (labs, inspection, PTP, RMP, biobanking) and the IAF MLA (management systems, products/processes/services, persons, validation/verification).
Conformity assessment bodies shall apply also respective mandatory documents of the EA, ILAC and IAF. List of LATAK mandatory documents is described in LATAK D.008. EA, IAF and ILAC documents are listed in EA-INF/01 (see http://www.european-accreditation.org/publications)