United Kingdom Accreditation Service


The United Kingdom Accreditation Service is the sole national accreditation body recognised by the British government to assess the competence of organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services. It evaluates these conformity assessment bodies and then accredits them where they are found to meet relevant internationally specified standards.
WWW Official Site𝕏 UKAS

Functions

  • UKAS assesses conformity assessment bodies for competence against internationally recognised standards
  • UKAS accredits
  • UKAS issues accreditation certificates and schedules showing the limits of the accreditation for a particular conformity assessment body and permits the use of the UKAS mark on accredited certification provided that it is accompanied by the UKAS Accreditation Number of the accredited body. The validity of an accreditation should be checked on the UKAS website. UKAS certificates do not bear an expiry date.

History

UKAS was set up in 1995 under a memorandum of understanding with the British government. It resulted from the merger in 1995 of NAMAS and NACCB. NAMAS was itself the result of a merger in 1985 of NATLAS formed in 1981 and BCS formed in 1966.

Structure

UKAS is a non-profit-distributing private company. It is operated in the public interest as a company limited by guarantee. It employs 190 staff and over 250 technical external assessors / experts.
UKAS has members who represent those who have an interest in accreditation – national and local government, business and industry, purchasers, users and quality managers. The present members are:
In 2010 UKAS acquired the CPA from the medical royal colleges. It started ISAS for the Royal College of Radiologists and the College of Radiographers.

Standards covered