Accreditation
“Accreditation is the formal recognition of a body’s competence to conduct a specific activity such as testing, inspection or certification.”
Formal recognition is by a national accreditation body such as INAB (Irish National Accreditation Board), UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) or ANAB (American National Accreditation Board). Some countries have more than one accreditation body, however, the target of the IAF (International Accreditation Forum) is that all countries should have only one accreditation body.
INAB is a member of EA (European Accreditation) and the IAF. Using a system of peer review, accreditation bodies ensure that standards are maintained internationally. Most accreditation bodies (including INAB) are party to an MLA (Multi Lateral Agreement) for mutual recognition of accreditations. This ensures that accreditation by INAB, UKAS and ANAB have equal standing when bidding for government contracts etc.
In the case of EQA (Ireland), the standards against which accreditation takes place are ISO 17021 for Management System Certification and EN 45011 for Product Certification. These standards define the competence, impartiality and integrity required to conduct audits. INAB conduct annual head office assessments, a series of witness assessments (where a member(s) of INAB attend an EQA audit) and reserve the right to conduct unannounced assessments.
It is not a legal requirement that a certification body must be accredited before it can issue certificates, however, certificates are only useful or reliable if the organisation or individual conducting the audit is competent and qualified. Accreditation is how reputable certification bodies demonstrate this competence and qualification.
Accredited certification bodies are issued with a schedule of accreditation from the accreditation body. This schedule lists the areas of competence for which the accreditation body have evaluated the competence of the certification body. Certification bodies are not permitted to use the accreditation body logo on certificates issued for activities which are not listed on the schedule of accreditation.
EQA (Ireland) have a policy not to issue non-accredited quality and environmental certificates unless we are confident that we would be able to successfully apply for an extension to our schedule of accreditation to cover the activity. If we do not have an auditor or technical expert who would meet the requirements of the accreditation body, we would refuse to quote for the business rather than issue a non-accredited certificate. It is also EQA policy to identify non-accredited activities to clients at quotation stage. This policy of regularly applying for extensions to scope and honesty with clients has resulted in EQA (Ireland) having one of the widest schedule of accreditations with INAB (link to schedule).
