Accreditation


Accreditation is a third-party attestation related to a conformity assessment body conveying formal demonstration of its competence to carry out specific conformity assessment tasks.
An authoritative body that performs accreditation is called an 'accreditation body'. The International Accreditation Forum and International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation provide international recognitions to accreditation bodies. There are many internationally-recognized accreditation bodies approved by the IAF and ILAC.
The Emirates International Accreditation Centre is the largest accreditation body in Middle East region, whereas in South Asia the Pakistan National Accreditation Council and Quality Council of India are the largest. In East Asia, the China National Accreditation Board is the largest, while the United Kingdom Accreditation Service is the largest in Europe. The National Association of Testing Authorities and the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand being the largest in the Oceania region, with the South African National Accreditation System being the largest in Africa.
For most of the accreditation schemes, international standards issued by the International Organization for Standardization are used.

Fields involved

Accreditation processes are used in a wide variety of fields:
Many accreditation bodies, such as the UKAS, EIAC, EGAC, PNAC, IAS, operate according to processes developed by the ISO as specified in ISO/IEC 17011. Accredited entities in specific sectors must provide evidence to the accreditation body that they conform to other standards in the same series: