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United Kingdom Accreditation Service

National accreditation body

Summary

National accreditation body

Field	Value
name	United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS)
abbreviation	UKAS
formation	1995
type	National accreditation body
status	Company limited by guarantee
purpose	Accreditation
location	2 Pine Trees, Chertsey Lane, Staines-upon-Thames, Middlesex TW18 3HR
region_served	UK
membership	Conformity assessment bodies, primarily British.
main_organ	UKAS Board (Chairman – James Lindesay-Bethune)
parent_organization	Department for Business and Trade
website	UKAS
remarks	Appointed as the sole National Accreditation Body, by the British Government as required by the Accreditation Regulations 2009 (S.I. No. 3155)

The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) is the sole national accreditation body recognised by the British government 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 Association of British Certification Bodies
British Measurement and Testing Association
Confederation of British Industry
The Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Federation of Small Businesses
The Local Authorities Coordinating Body of Regulatory Services
Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply
The Chartered Quality Institute
The Safety Assessment Federation
Food Standards Agency
Defence Procurement Agency
Health and Safety Executive
Public Health Laboratory Services
British Retail Consortium

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 and the College of Radiographers.

Standards covered

ISO/IEC 17025
ISO 15189
ISO/IEC 17020
ISO/IEC 17021
- ISO 9001
- ISO 14001
- ISO 13485
- ISO 19443
- ISO 20000-1
- ISO 28001
- ISO 44001
- ISO 45001
- ISO/IEC 27001
- ISO 50001
- ISO 55001
- ISO 22301
ISO/IEC 17024
ISO/IEC 17065
ISO/IEC 17043
ISO 17034
ISO/IEC 14065
ISO/IEC 17029
ISO 20387

References

"About us". United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS).
(23 January 2006). "Memorandum of Understanding Between the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and the United Kingdom Accreditation Service".
(January 1986). "Measurement Standards: National measurement accreditation service launched". Physics Bulletin.
(October 1993). "The organization of instrument evaluation by an accredited laboratory". ISA Transactions.
"About the QA – United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS)".
(2 May 2017). "The regulatory landscape for pathology services".
"Imaging Services Accreditation Scheme (ISAS)".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1995-establishments-in-the-united-kingdom accreditation-organizations borough-of-runnymede department-for-business,-innovation-and-skills government-agencies-established-in-1995 organisations-based-in-surrey private-companies-limited-by-guarantee-of-the-united-kingdom quality-assurance

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