UKAS Accreditation explained: Everything you need to know

You may have heard a lot about UKAS and UKAS accreditation but what is UKAS, its role with UK Government, does it have a regulatory role, what is accreditation, what is special about UKAS accreditation & how does it compare with other accreditations.

In this article, I look at the frequent questions that I hear about UKAS and UKAS accreditation & provide answers to everything UKAS.

I will, only, look at UKAS in relation to its role in the accreditation of certification bodies issuing UKAS-accredited certificates for Management System Certification, such as ISO 14001 for environmental management systems, ISO 9001 for quality management & ISO 45001 for occupational health and safety.

So, at its simplest, UKAS accredited Certification Bodies & UKAS-accredited Certification Bodies issue UKAS-accredited certificates to organisations, which meet the requirement of the relevant Management System Standard.

However, do note that UKAS has a much wider remit to accredit product and personnel certification, & laboratories offering testing, inspection, and calibration services as well as other forms of accreditation.

If you want to find out more about the difference between accreditation and certification, see this article here & our video here.

What is UKAS?
The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) is the United Kingdom’s sole national accreditation body. It is formally recognised by the UK government, to assess and accredit against internationally agreed standards, organisations that provide conformity assessment activities including certification of management systems.

The current UK government policy is that it shall only recognise accreditation of UK-based bodies that have been accredited by UKAS with a specific policy statement to support this recognition.

What is UKAS’ relationship with Government?
UKAS is a private, not for profit organisation which operates under a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government, through the Secretary of State for Department for Business and Trade (DBT).

UKAS is appointed as the National Accreditation Body (NAB) by the Accreditation Regulations 2009 (S.I. No 2009/3155) for the purposes of Article 4 (1) of Regulation 765/2008 specifying the requirements for accreditation and market surveillance relating to the marketing of products, as amended.

The Regulation on Accreditation and Market Surveillance No 765/2008 (“RAMS”) became incorporated into GB law by the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and deficiencies were corrected by the Product Safety and Metrology etc. (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 No. 696 (as amended). This is the legislative framework for accreditation in Great Britain (referred to as GB RAMS).

In Northern Ireland, Regulation (EC) No. 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council setting out the requirements for accreditation and market surveillance (as it applies in EU law, through the Northern Ireland Protocol) will continue to apply.

The Accreditation Regulations 2009 (SI 2009 No. 3155) also apply, and this regulation appoints UKAS as the sole UK National Accreditation Body.

Does UKAS have a regulatory role?
It should be made clear that UKAS is not a regulator. It does not have any legal or regulatory enforcement powers unlike, say, the Environment Agency or the Health and Safety Executive. However, UKAS does have an ‘oversight’ role to ensure that those organisations’ it accredits meet the applicable international accreditation standards, such as ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015 for UKAS-accredited Certification Bodies for Management System Certification, such as ISO 14001 for environmental management systems, ISO 9001 for quality management & ISO 45001 for occupational health and safety.

What is UKAS accreditation?
Accreditation is formal, third-party recognition of competence to perform specific tasks by an accreditation body. Within the UK, UKAS gets its authority through its appointment as the UK’s sole national accreditation body via the Accreditation Regulations 2009 (S.I. No 2009/3155).

What are the benefits of being UKAS accredited?
UKAS accreditation of conformity assessment bodies, such as management systems certification bodies, provides those bodies and their customers with confidence that they are working in conformance with international norms, such as ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015, and therefore can be relied upon to provide reliable conformity assessment services.

Recognition of UKAS accreditation is not restricted to the UK but globally due to its membership of international mutual recognition arrangements (MRAs and MLAs), i.e. those operated by EA and IAF. These recognition arrangements provide confidence of the accreditation process that can benefit supply chains and reduces the need for suppliers to be assessed by each of their customers as first- and second- party audits. More about first-, second- and third-party audits can be seen in the article here and the video here.

What if an organisation is not accredited by UKAS, but by another Accreditation Body?
UKAS is a signatory, in common with other recognised accreditation bodies from around the world, to multilateral agreements for the purposes of mutual recognition through the European co-operation for Accreditation (EA), the International Accreditation Forum (IAF). Those accreditation bodies that are signatory to these agreements are deemed to provide technically equivalent services having undergone stringent peer evaluations.

Further information on other accreditation bodies recognised through multi-lateral recognition agreements can be found on the EA & IAF websites.

If your certificate is from a body that is a signatory to one of the above multilateral recognition agreements, then the certificate you have can be deemed as technically equivalent to one issued by a UKAS accredited body, and the certificate should be recognised in those countries whose accreditation bodies are signatory to the EA & IAF multilateral agreements.

However, it should be noted that the UK government’s policy is that it will only recognise accreditation of UK-based bodies by the UKAS and that it will continue to recognise accreditation by MLA signatories of bodies from outside of the UK.

If accreditation is provided by a body that is not signatory to one of the above MLAs then there is no formal recognition of their competence and care should be taken: The end-user of the report or certificate shall not have the same confidence that it will get from using services accredited by an EA or IAF signatory.

How to find out if a certification body is accredited by UKAS?
Schedules of accreditation for all organisations can be found on the UKAS website at www.ukas.com.  The schedules, which can be searched here, include detailed information with respect to the technical scope that the organisations are accredited for.  The presence of a schedule of accreditation on our website, confirms that accreditation for that organisation is current and valid.  Absence of a schedule on the UKAS website indicates that the accreditation is no longer in force; where accreditation is temporarily suspended this is also noted here.

It should be noted that UKAS accreditation schedules, whilst confirming that accreditation is current and valid, they do not carry expiry dates. As the UKAS assessment process is ongoing, accreditation schedules may be updated, revised or even withdrawn, so it is important to check the accreditation status periodically to ensure that it remains current and valid.

If this article has helped to advance your understanding of UKAS and UKAS accreditation or if you have an un-answered question about UKAS, please leave a comment in the box below, if this article has help you.

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