Developing new accreditation at UKAS

The UKAS Development team plays a crucial role in advancing the UK's National Accreditation Body's capacity to respond to emerging needs and in fostering innovation in accreditation practices.

The Development team is responsible for assessing the level of market interest in potential new types of accreditation, establishing the viability of new development projects, and where possible, creating acceptable routes to accreditation to various standards for new activities.

When it becomes apparent that there is market demand for accreditation for a new activity, the UKAS Development team will put out an 'Expression of Interest', which invites appropriate conformity assessment bodies to put themselves forward for potential development projects, which may in time evolve into pilot accreditation programmes.

This week UKAS has published two new Expressions of Interest:

Optical Gas Imaging

The recent development and implementation of Optical Gas Imaging (OGI) technology has resulted in UKAS receiving a number of enquiries to perform accredited conformity activities related to the identification and quantification of emissions using OGI technology.

As this activity represents an new area of accreditation, UKAS needs to undertake a development project to confirm the applicability of the proposed conformity assessment and establish a robust and proportionate assessment approach. UKAS would like to invite conformity assessment bodies to express an interest in conducting OGI inspection and/or test activities.

The decision to progress accreditation against either/or ISO/IEC 17020:2012 and ISO/IEC 17025:2017 will be determined from the responses to this call for interest and further exploration of the activity.

Read more and submit your interest on the website.

Customer Contact Centres

UKAS is considering running a project to develop accreditation for the certification to ISO 18295-1:2017 Customer contact centres, Part 1: Requirements for customer contact centres.

As this activity represents an new area of accreditation, UKAS needs to undertake a development project to confirm the applicability of the proposed conformity assessment and establish a robust and proportionate assessment approach. UKAS would like to invite conformity assessment bodies that are interested in this certification to express their interest.

Read more and submit your interest on the website.

Pilot accreditation update: certification of AI management systems

UKAS continues to progress the development of accreditation under ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015 for certification of AI management systems against ISO/IEC 42001:2023.

Following the completion of the expression of interest period, we have now received 6 applications from CABs who wish to participate in the first phase of the development pilot.

Whilst we are processing the applications, we are also developing the competence criteria for UKAS assessment teams, determining the assessment approach and considering scoping for this new area, taking account of the current certification activities of the pilot CABs. ?We have been liaising closely with other National ABs with the aim to ensure UKAS’s approach is harmonised with work underway elsewhere.? Subject to any operational constraints for UKAS and/or the applicant CABs, including technical considerations resulting from other developing normative requirements, such as ISO/IEC 42006, we plan to start the assessments this autumn.

Any other CABs interested in gaining accreditation for this area can obtain further information from UKAS. Please get in touch Steve Randall – Accreditation Specialist – Development at [email protected] so we can work with you in the next phase of the project.