Accreditation is a procedure by which an authoritative body provides formal recognition that a body or person is competent to carry out specific tasks.
Accreditation determines the technical competence and integrity of organisations offering conformity assessment services such as testing, certification, inspection and calibration based on international standards. Accreditation can thus be used to verify compliance to a standard. Accreditation is an impartial and objective process carried-out by third-parties; it offers the least duplicative, the most transparent and the most widely accepted route for the provision of credible and trustworthy conformity assessment results.
Accreditation bodies are established in most countries to ensure that conformity assessment bodies are subject to oversight by a competent body. Internationally recognised accreditation bodies, which have been evaluated by peers as competent, sign international arrangements that enhance the acceptance of products and services across borders, thereby creating a global infrastructure to support trade regulatory approval processes, and confidence in the marketplace. These arrangements are managed by International Accreditation Forum (IAF), in the fields covering accreditation of certification bodies and verification/validation bodies, and ILAC, in the areas of laboratory and inspection boy accreditation. This system helps to make work carried out by accreditation bodies consistent across the globe, and maintains international standards form one accreditation body to others. As a result, products and services tested, inspected or certified once under the IAF and ILAC umbrella can be accepted everywhere with equal confidence.
International Accreditation Forum (IAF)
International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC)
