Published: 25.05.2021.

Latvian National accreditation system is established in the law “On Conformity Assessment”, section 13.

  1. The Cabinet of Ministers establishes a unified, national accreditation system, which conforms to the international requirements. Its objective is to determine accreditation procedures and observance of unified management principles. 
  2. Ministry of Economics implements state policy in the field of accreditation and ensures operations of national accreditation system. 
  3. Latvian National Accreditation Council participates in development of state policy in the field of accreditation, promotes cooperation with international accreditation organizations, as well as provides consulting to conformity  assessment bodies on issues of the regulated and non-regulated area. Latvian National Accreditation Council is an advisory body. Regulations and personnel of this Council at the recommendation of the Minister o Economic are approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. 
  4. Accreditation of conformity assessment bodies in the regulated and non-regulated area, as well as operations of conformity assessment bodies are performed by the national accreditation body. 
  5. National accreditation body is entitled to form technical committees of branches in order to receive consulting for solution of particular technical issues in the respective area.

The key anchor of operations of the accreditation system is the branch specialists, which are involved in assessments of conformity assessment bodies

Latvian National Accreditation Council is an advisory body for accreditation of laboratories, certification and inspection bodies, environment verifiers (EMAS), SEG verifiers in the regulated and non-regulated area. It participates in development of state policy in the field of accreditation and facilitates cooperation with the international accreditation organizations. Bylaws of this Council are approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Republic of Latvia. 

The Council consists of representatives from the following interested parties: 

Ministries, national quality infrastructure bodies, conformity assessment bodies; professional non-governmental organizations in the field of conformity assessment; consumers’ rights protection organization.

Accreditation branch Technical committees (ABTC) provide consulting to the Latvian National Accreditation Bureau on technical issues of various accreditation scopes, participates in drafting of LATAK documents, translation of EA documents, training of assessors and experts. 

Technical committees of branches work in accordance with the technical committee regulations and they consist of specialists of the respective branches, as well as LATAK representatives.

Work of the committee is coordinated by a Chairman of the Committee elected from the members of the committee, his/her deputies and/or heads of sections. Mutual contacts between LATAK and the Committees are maintained by a person appointed by LATAK. LATAK management participates in the meetings of the committee. Recordkeeping of branch committees is maintained by a representative of LATAK.

There are the following acting technical committees of branches:

  • Accreditation of proficiency test organizers ABTC
  • Medical Equipment Inspection ABTC