ISO/IEC 17025 - Accreditation Bodies

Accreditation Bodies

In order for accreditation bodies to recognize each others' accreditations, the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) worked to establish methods of evaluating accreditation bodies against another ISO standard (ISO/IEC Guide 58 - which became ISO/IEC 17011). Around the world, geo-political regions such as the European Community, and Asia-Pacific, the Americas and others, established regional cooperations to manage the work needed for such mutual recognition. These regional bodies (all working within the ILAC umbrella) include European Accreditation Cooperation (EA), the Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC), Southern Africa Accreditation Cooperation (SADCA) and the Inter-American Accreditation Cooperation (IAAC).

The first laboratory accreditation bodies to be established were NATA in Australia (1947) and TELARC in New Zealand (1973). Most other bodies are based on the NATA/TELARC model and include UKAS in the UK, FINAS in Finland and DANAK in Denmark to name a few. In India, the National Accreditation Board for Testing & Calibration Laboratories (NABL) exists under the Ministry of Department of Science & Technology, with the Government of India providing accreditation.

In the U.S. there are are a variety of accreditation bodies that serve the laboratory community. These bodies accredit testing and calibration labs, reference material producers, PT providers, product certifiers, inspection bodies, forensic institutions and others to a multitude of standards and programs. They are:

• the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board and their associated brands ACLASS, FQS, and ANAB
• The American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA)
• Perry Johnson Laboratories
• American Industrial Hygiene Association
• International Accreditation Service
• National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) - technically part of the US government and only accredits a few narrow disciplines
• American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors-Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD-LAB)

In Canada, there are two accreditation bodies:

• Standards Council of Canada
• The Canadian Association for Laboratory Accreditation

In New Zealand (Aotearoa), the acceditation body is:

• International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ)

The accreditation of calibration laboratories is the shared responsibility of the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) Program for the Accreditation of Laboratories-Canada (PALCAN), and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) Calibration Laboratory Assessment Service (CLAS). The CLAS program provides quality system and technical assessment services and certification of specific measurement capabilities of calibration laboratories in support of the Canadian National Measurement System. In other countries there is often only one Accreditation Body. Typically these bodies encompass accreditation programs for management systems, product certification, laboratory, inspection, personnel and others.