News Item • 2 mins read
Many Congratulations to all at UKAS on your 25th anniversary as the United Kingdom’s Accreditation Service!
Of course the history of UKAS and of NPL is deeply entwinned. The relocation of the British Calibration Service to NPL in the 1970s and the introduction of the National Testing Laboratory Accreditation Scheme by NPL in 1981 was part of a long process of organisational development, resulting eventually in the creation of UKAS as an independent body in 1995.
It is now well understood that a robust quality infrastructure is required for the effective operation of domestic markets, and its international recognition is important to enable access to foreign markets. It is also a critical element in promoting and sustaining economic development, as well as environmental and social wellbeing and as such has never been more important than it is now.
As national accreditation body and national metrology institute, UKAS and NPL form two critical pillars of the UK quality infrastructure – a system that is respected across the globe – and we have always cooperated well to discharge these essential tasks. NPL gain tremendous value from the insight into the needs of UKAS and UKAS accredited companies through their regular interactions with us and we hope likewise that UKAS derive value from interacting with NPL experts working on leading edge service capability development and through using our staff as UKAS assessors.
We look forward to another 25 years of continued collaboration to face together any challenges that the future brings.
All the best.
Pete
Dr Peter Thompson
CEO NPL