IAF-ILAC Mid-Year Meetings 2016

The Joint International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) Mid-Year technical and committee meetings were held in Frankfurt, Germany, from 30 March to 05 April 2016.

Some of the key discussions were on the revision of ISO/IEC 17011 and ISO/IEC 17025. Both revisions were currently at Committee Draft 2 (CD2) stage. The revised ISO/IEC 17011 which relates to the operation of accreditation bodies, is expected to be published in August 2017. The revised ISO/IEC 17025, which is for the operation of testing and calibration laboratories, is expected to be published in the second quarter of 2017. SAC is monitoring the revision of these standards and plans to organise seminar at appropriate juncture to share with our accredited laboratories on key changes to the revised ISO/IEC 17025.

At the IAF, there was an agreement to proceed with the multilateral recognition arrangement (MLA) for Energy Management based on ISO 50001. The MLA for Greenhouse Gas based on ISO 14065 is also expected to be in place by 2018.

There was also clarification at the meetings on the IAF’s decision for all accredited management systems certification bodies to issue only accredited certificates to their clients for their accredited scopes. Certification bodies have up to a maximum of 3 years from November 2016 to fully comply with the only accredited certification requirement.