I always understood that UKAS accreditation could only be obtained directly from.......... UKAS? www.ukas.com

Hi All, Is there really a need for accreditation, I'm sure if the people delivering the courses are fully qualified and with relevant experience then that is more than suffice or have I got it wrong ?

Had to search this one since didn't recognise the initials IAC - International Accreditation Council based - I believe in Middle East. (Note to all - don't assume that everybody recognises acronyms) Seems there is some debate here in UK about who should be allowed to accredite aganist standards. UKAS is the de facto UK body and thus it does not seem unreasonable for a customer to stipulate that your standards should be subject to UKAS overview/accreditation. Have a look at this link http://www.endsreport.co...ument-over-accreditation Phil

Paul There seems to be some confusion here between being accredited by UKAS and being certified to a standard. If you have been certified to a standard like OHSAS 18001 etc you are certified and there is no “better” standard to be obtained from UKAS. The UKAS accreditation is what companies that apply the standard aim for, so unless you are intending to certify other companies to a particular standard there is no need for you to be accredited by UKAS or anybody else.

Paul, it is not clear from your post whether you have been required to "upgrade" to a UKAS accredited certification body for auditing and then certifying your organisation to all 3 "standards", i.e. OHSAS 18001, ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 or is it with reference to a training provider? Generally, you are unlikely to be offered ISO 9001 & ISO 14001 certification by a non-UKAS accredited certification body, because that is the requirement of ISO Standard. However, currently, OHSAS 18001 IS NOT an ISO Standard, therefore there is NO mandatory requirement for any certification bodies to be accredited by UKAS for issuing OHSAS 18001 certificates. This is likely to change when ISO published and ISO standard for Occupational Health & safety Management, in a few years time. The larger certification bodies are accredited by UKAS for OHSAS 18001, but this has been a slow process. It is my understanding that one of the biggest barriers for UKAS accreditation is the requirement for "Competent Lead Auditors" and that is no simple matter as the UKAS accreditation also identifies the sectors that a certification body can issue based on its UKAS accreditation! The current list of Health and Safety Management Systems Accredited Bodies by UKAS is at:- http://www.ukas.com/abou...-schedules-H&SMS.asp http://www.ukas.com/abou...ation/accredited-bodies/ The above list has the UKAS certificate with details of the scope of accreditation The number of UKAS accredited certification bodies for Health and Safety Management Systems is about one third (34) compared to those that are UKAS accredited for Quality Management Systems (92) ( refer to:-

To add to Ian's posting, we've had at least one 18001 audit where the lack of health and safety qualifications of the audit team, meant that our deliverables on a project jumped through the hoops as the deliverables existed, but where the quality of the content was absolute rubbish.

I think that there is an easy answer... There are various 9,14 and 1800 certification bodies who are not UKAS accredited. As that means they are basically unregulated -- and normally rubbish but do give recognisable badges then some clients eg MOD will only recognise that you have achieved the ISO standard if the certification is given by a UKAS accredited certification body.. I heop that helps