Accreditation

Accreditation is the status awarded to certification bodies. It means that they have been examined and approved by accreditation councils to assess companies in specific industry sectors.

Accreditation proves that the certification body has the necessary professionalism and expertise to conduct assessments and gives additional purchaser confidence. For this reason, accredited certification holds greater commercial value and integrity than non-accredited approval.

Accreditation councils are the national bodies responsible for assessing and approving certification bodies, laboratories and inspection bodies. Accreditation councils also advise the relevant government on the appointment of notified bodies under specific European directives.

In the UK, LRQA holds accreditation from the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS):

For a full listing of our global accreditations please visit: www.lrqa.com
For further information on the work of UKAS, please visit: www.ukas.com

In April this year, LRQA became the first certification body on a global level to make the transition to ISO/IEC 17021 and the only to be awarded this accreditation by UKAS for all three management system products: QMS (ISO 9001), EMS (ISO 14001) and OHSMS (OHSAS 18001) for all industry sector scopes. For further information visit LRQA news section.

Our advice

Not all certification bodies are made the same. When selecting the body you want to work with ensure they are accredited by UKAS to provide the service you want. Look for the UKAS tick and crown for your assurance. The UKAS accreditation marks for LRQA are shown below.

UKAS marks for Quality Management, Environmental Management, and Information Security Management