​​​​​​​On 9th June 2023, the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and International Accreditation Forum (IAF) will together host World Accreditation Day. This initiative was created to support trade and focus on how accreditation and conformity assessments benefit global trade.

John Albon, Head of Assurance

Dan Ancliffe, Head of Quality

This year’s theme, “Accreditation: Supporting the Future of Global Trade”, has been designed to draw attention to the changing global landscape and the changes accreditation may go through in order to adapt to new technologies and consumer habits alongside changes to our environment. To support the cause, we asked Jon Albon (Head of Assurance) and Dan Ancliffe (Head of Quality) to share their views on World Accreditation Day and why accreditation is important to the BBA:

“Certification and test services are becoming increasingly important in the UK construction industry and the focus is sure to grow with the implementation of the Building Safety Bill and the growing scrutiny of the quality and safety criticality of building materials.

The BBA has been active in this sector for 57 years and we draw on our wealth of in-house and industry experience to ensure our certificates and schemes are fit-for-purpose and remain so, through the ever-changing construction environment.

Our UKAS accreditation is an independent validation of BBA operating to internationally agreed best practice. However, BBA continually strives to exceed this benchmark through continual review and development of its processes and practices to improve its customer experience and product quality. We draw on our wealth of industry experience to ensure our certificates and schemes are fit-for-purpose and remain so, through the ever-changing construction environment.

This is underpinned by the UKAS accreditation of most of the BBA’s services to four separate accreditation Standards covering product certification, test, quality management and site inspections.  This accreditation provides an authoritative and independent assurance to our customers and industry stakeholders that we meet the highest expectations of a professional Certification body.

Accreditation requires detailed examination by UKAS of the quality system processes and procedures operated by the BBA but also, critically, the way in which these are operated in practice. This includes evaluating the knowledge and competency of the staff involved and the quality of the certificates and reports produced.

Accreditation provides a vital function in demonstrating to users of certification that the output of the BBA is accurate, reliable, impartial and consistent and so sets accredited organisation apart from others in the marketplace.”

For more information on World Accreditation Day, follow the links below:

• International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) – https://iaf.nu/en/home/
• International Accreditation Forum (IAF) – https://iaf.nu/en/home/