The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS)

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UKAS is the national accreditation body for the United Kingdom, assessing organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services

The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) is the national accreditation body for the United Kingdom and delivers the UK’s accreditation service. While UKAS remains independent of government, it operates under a Memorandum of Understanding and is licensed by government to use and confer the national accreditation symbols, which symbolise government recognition of the accreditation process.

The key role of UKAS is to assess that organisations performing conformity assessment services such as testing, inspection, certification, calibration and verification, are meeting a required standard of performance.

UKAS accreditation is done to recognised national and international standards and spans multiple sectors including HealthCare, Forensic Science, Construction, Engineering, Food and Farming, Environmental, Digital and IR4, as well as the ‘TIC sector’, comprising Testing, Inspection and Certification.

Accreditation underpins the UK’s global quality infrastructure, delivering a world of confidence in the products and services that government, businesses and the public rely upon. As the UK’s appointed accreditation service, UKAS is a member of the European co-operation for Accreditation (EA); the International Laboratory Accreditation Co-operation (ILAC); and the International Accreditation Forum (IAF).

Mutual recognition is a core function of the regional and international organisations, and each operates an effective and globally recognised MLA system, underpinned by peer evaluation against the requirements of the International Standard for the operation of accreditation bodies (ISO/IEC 17011). As a full signatory to these agreements, UKAS provides its accredited bodies with global recognition, with UKAS accredited reports and certificates being accepted as technically equivalent to other signatories. UKAS accreditation is accepted in over 100 economies across the world, reducing barriers to trade for UK exporters with the concept being – accredited once, accepted everywhere.

UKAS works closely with government to ensure that accredited bodies have demonstrated their competence, impartiality, integrity and performance capability. This helps to ensure the integrity of the accreditation system and the trust in the accuracy and reliability of the assessment results.

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