You need to develop and implement a quality management system that meets the requirements of ISO 17025 or ISO 15189 and survive a UKAS assessment.
Service:
UKAS Accreditation
UKAS sets the bar higher. We help you clear it.
UKAS Accreditation support covers strategy, planning and implementation for laboratory accreditation to ISO 17025 and ISO 15189. We have supported accreditation across a wide range of testing, calibration and medical laboratory disciplines. We know what UKAS assessors are looking for because we have faced them many times.
Ready to go through assessment with confidence?
Sound familiar?
You are applying for UKAS accreditation for the first time?
We guide you through the entire process, from system design and documentation through to your initial UKAS assessment, making sure nothing catches you off guard on the day.
You are struggling to maintain your accreditation between assessments?
Getting accredited was hard enough, but keeping everything in order between UKAS visits is proving difficult to manage alongside the day job.
We help keep your system current, your records in order and your team prepared for the next assessment, without it taking over the day job.
UKAS has raised findings you are not sure how to close?
Your last assessment produced findings or observations that you need to address, and you are not confident your proposed corrective actions will satisfy the assessors.
We review the findings with you, identify the root causes and develop corrective actions that will close them.
You want to extend your scope of accreditation?
You want to add new test methods, measurement ranges or technical disciplines to your existing UKAS schedule.
We support the technical and quality management aspects of scope extension, from method validation through to UKAS application.
Problem solved!
UKAS accreditation achieved and maintained, with a quality management system your laboratory team understands and your assessors trust.
Mini FAQs
ISO certification is awarded by a certification body against a management system standard. UKAS accreditation is awarded against a technical competence standard and involves a more rigorous assessment of your laboratory methods, equipment, personnel and measurement uncertainty. Accreditation carries greater weight in most technical and regulated markets because it demonstrates not just that you have a system, but that your laboratory can produce reliable, traceable results.
No. ISO 17025 and ISO 15189 both incorporate quality management requirements. Many laboratories develop their quality management system specifically to meet the accreditation standard rather than pursuing ISO 9001 separately. That said, if you already hold ISO 9001, it gives you a useful and recognised foundation to build on.
We start by understanding your laboratory’s scope, methods and current quality management arrangements. From there we design and implement the system, support method validation and verification activities, prepare your documentation and take you through a readiness review before your UKAS assessment. We stay involved through the assessment itself and any post-assessment corrective action.
Most laboratories achieve initial accreditation within nine to eighteen months, depending on the scope, the number of methods involved and the starting point. Extending an existing scope is typically faster. A gap assessment or readiness review at the outset gives you a realistic picture before you commit.
UKAS conducts regular surveillance assessments and a full reassessment on a four-year cycle. Maintaining accreditation requires ongoing attention to your quality management system, method performance, personnel competence and equipment calibration. We can provide ongoing support to help keep everything in order between assessments, or step back once your team is confident and return when you need us.
Relevant case studies
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