UKAS Accreditation
Who are UKAS?
The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) is the sole national accreditation
body recognised by government to assess, against internationally agreed standards,
organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration
services.
UKAS make sure that the body who issues your ISO certificate (e.g. BSI, LRQA, VCA) have been assessed against internationally recognised standards to demonstrate their competence, impartiality and performance capability.
For more information please visit www.ukas.com.
Why is having a UKAS-accredited certificate important?
Once you have implemented either ISO 9001 or ISO 14001, you can have this independently certified by a third party, which demonstrates to your customers that the system really does meet the standard. When choosing which body to certify your ISO system, you should think carefully about how qualified they are to do this. Choosing a UKAS-accredited certification body gives you peace of mind that you have chosen a competent body. This reduces the risk of selecting an incompetent evaluator and paying for, or more seriously, acting upon invalid results.
A full list of UKAS-accredited certification bodies is available on www.ukas.com.
Is having a UKAS-accredited certificate compulsory?
The simple answer is no. You do not need to have your ISO standard certified
at all, but doing so by a UKAS-accredited certification body means that it
has been independently verified by a competent body. An increasing number of
customers are insisting on UKAS-accredited certification.
Having it certified by a non-UKAS-accredited certification body is perfectly legal, but you run the risk of dealing with a company who may not be competent. More importantly, you may end up spending money on a scheme which your customers do not recognise.
What are the benefits of a certified ISO management system? Having your ISO 9001 or ISO 14001 system independently certified by a UKAS-accredited certification body has many benefits:
- You can demonstrate that your scheme fully meets the ISO standard
- An increasing number of customers ask for it, and many tender documents now require a copy of the certificate
- You can promote your certification on your marketing literature and raise the image of your company
- Certificates with the UKAS stamp are fully recognised throughout the world, and can therefore open up new markets for your business
Is it recognised outside the UK? ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 are international standards, and certificates from UKAS-accredited certification bodies are recognised throughout the world.
