International Developments on Accreditation

Accreditation bodies and stakeholders of accreditation all over the world gathered at Vancouver, Canada from 7-17 Oct 2014 for the joint International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) Annual Meetings, to discuss key policy issues on accreditation and conformity assessment practices as well as MRA matters.

Revision of Conformance Standards

The ISO/IEC 17025 General requirements for the Competence of Testing and Calibration Laboratories, an important standard used by laboratories around the world, is under revision. An ISO Working Group has been formed for the revision of this standard. Feedbacks on the revision of ISO/IEC 17025 are welcome from industry and interested parties, and they can be sent to the Standards or Accreditation Division of SPRING Singapore.

Another standard commonly used by the industry is ISO/IEC 14001 Environmental management systems -- Requirements with guidance for use. The revised standard is expected to be published in end 2015. A three year time frame was agreed at the IAF for certified companies to work with their certification bodies to transit to the new edition. Any certification to the old issue of the standard will be considered void after the timeframe. The transition timeline for other new standards, ISO 50003 and ISO/IEC 17021-1 used for certification, are three and two years respectively.

Developing Trends

At the October meeting, ILAC extended its global Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) for Proficiency Testing Providers (PTP). Currently, Singapore through the Singapore Accreditation Council (SAC) is already a MRA signatory under the Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC). Once APLAC as a region is recognised under the ILAC MRA for PTP, the SAC accredited PTP will also be part of the global MRA framework.

Another development was on the registration of the ILAC MRA Mark for laboratories and inspection bodies. With the ILAC registration expected to complete in early 2015, SAC accredited laboratories and inspection bodies will be able to use the ILAC MRA Mark together with SAC Accreditation Mark (ie the Combined Mark) in their testing, calibration and inspection reports. This will demonstrate that the laboratories or inspection bodies are accredited by a signatory of the ILAC arrangement. An example of the Combined Mark for Laboratory is shown below: