Articles • 3 mins read
This year, as UKAS joins organisations worldwide in celebrating World Quality Week, we are also preparing for an essential milestone in our quality journey – our peer evaluation with the European cooperation for Accreditation (EA) which takes place between the 15th and 22nd of November.
This in-depth evaluation (occurring every four years) is a critical process that provides independent confirmation that UKAS continues to meet the requirements relevant to its roles as the UK’s National Accreditation Body. Successful peer evaluation ensures UKAS retains its EA, ILAC (International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation), and IAF (International Accreditation Forum) multilateral agreement (MLA/MRA) signatory statuses, which enable global recognition of UKAS accredited services in areas including, but not limited to, certification, testing, calibration and inspection.
Maintaining MLA/MRA signatory status enables users of UKAS-accredited services around the world to have confidence in the reports and certificates issued by the accredited bodies. This recognition is made possible through this process of peer evaluation, where UKAS must demonstrate compliance with ISO/IEC 17011, the international standard for accreditation bodies. These agreements provide technical equivalence across borders, allowing UKAS customers to operate in overseas markets with the assurance that their accreditation meets internationally recognised quality standards.
What the peer evaluation involves
This peer evaluation will bring a team of evaluators from other EA member accreditation bodies to assess UKAS’s processes, technical competences and adherence to international standards. During the six-day evaluation, the evaluation team shall assess the compliance of UKAS’s policies and processes against international criteria, review the effectiveness of their implementation, observe assessment processes within each of the 10 fields covered within the scope of UKAS’s MLA, review records, and interview personnel to confirm how effectively UKAS maintains impartiality and ensures effective implementation of a robust and suitable management system.
Peer evaluations such as these are challenging, given the rigour and scope involved. However, they are crucial to maintaining the credibility of our accreditation services. By undergoing these evaluations, UKAS demonstrates that it can meet international standards, ensure technical competence, and deliver reliable, trustworthy accreditation. Our previous evaluation in 2021, a remote assessment conducted by a team of 13 EA colleagues, demonstrated UKAS’s strengths in data management, adherence to procedure, and the quality of our assessment processes, while also offering areas for continual improvement.
Tracy Pia, Head of Quality and Compliance at UKAS, reflects on the importance of the peer evaluation:
“Quality is at the heart of everything we do at UKAS and our peer evaluation is a valuable opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to maintaining rigorous standards and dedication to continual improvement. We understand that each assessment, each process review, and each step in our journey towards excellence strengthens the trust our stakeholders place in us. Our aim is not only to meet the relevant requirements, but to exemplify the highest levels of quality and reliability.”
Going beyond compliance in World Quality Week
This year’s World Quality Week theme, “From Compliance to Performance,” resonates strongly with UKAS’s approach to quality. For UKAS, compliance is the foundation, but performance drives us forward, pushing us to exceed standards, improve practices, and enhance our ability to meet evolving customer needs. By maintaining and continuously enhancing our accreditation processes, UKAS reaffirms its role as a trusted leader in quality and accreditation.
As we prepare for this month’s peer evaluation, UKAS remains committed to delivering trusted and internationally recognised accreditation services. This World Quality Week, we celebrate not only our compliance with high standards but also our commitment to quality and continual performance improvement – qualities that keep UKAS at the forefront of global accreditation.