Key Concepts: Accreditation

What is accreditation?

Accreditation is the formal recognition that an organization is competent to perform specific processes, activities, or tasks (which are detailed in a scope of accreditation) in a reliable credible and accurate manner.

Accreditation is the independent evaluation of conformity assessment bodies against recognized standards to ensure their impartiality and competence to carry out specific activities, such as tests, calibrations, inspections and certifications. Accreditation is thus a strategic tool that underpins the credibility of products and services.

Accreditation is officially defined as “third-party attestation related to a conformity assessment body conveying formal demonstration of its competence to carry out specific conformity assessment tasks” (ISO/IEC 17000)”.

In other words, accreditation formally recognizes the technical competence of laboratories, inspection and certification bodies, so that certificates issued by these bodies are recognized as being reliable and trustworthy.