News Item • 1 min read
ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement: Accreditation of Reference Material Producers added to UKAS Scope
Until now, the international recognition of UKAS accredited reference material producers (RMPs) has been limited to the Europe via the European cooperation for Accreditation Multilateral Agreement (EA MLA). UKAS was amongst the first accreditation bodies to have RMP accreditation (ISO 17034) included within its EA MLA scope in May 2019. Since then, EA has been evaluated by the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) with respect to recognising the technical validity of its RMP MLA, and this was finally approved during April of this year. As a consequence, all EA-member accreditation bodies that are signatories to the EA MLA for RMP are now included under the new ILAC MRA for RMP, giving this activity global recognition.
This addition to UKAS’s MRA scope means that its accredited RMP customers can now use the ILAC MRA mark on certificates to promote their international recognition, subject to signing an Agreement for its use with UKAS. Details on how to do this can be found in the Customer area of the UKAS website.