The event, organised by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), focuses on how accreditation supports sustainable development, enhances consumer confidence, and fosters innovation and environmental protection.

What is accreditation?

Although the terms accreditation and certification are often used interchangeably, they represent two distinct but related steps in the quality assurance process.

Certification refers to the evaluation of an organisation, product, or individual to confirm they meet the requirements of a recognised standard or scheme, such as BBA Agrément or ISO 9001.

Accreditation, on the other hand, goes a step further. It involves assessing the competence, impartiality, and performance of the body that carries out the certification. In this way, accreditation provides an additional layer of oversight and assurance, helping to ensure the reliability and credibility of the certification process itself.

The BBA’s UKAS Accreditation

UKAS is the UK’s National Accreditation Body, responsible for determining, in the public interest, the technical competence and integrity of organisations such as those offering testing, inspection and certification services.

Most of the BBA’s services are underpinned by four separate UKAS Accreditation Standards. These cover product certification, test, quality management and site inspections. This accreditation provides an authoritative and independent assurance to our customers and industry stakeholders that the BBA meets 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: Empowering Small and Medium Enterprises

This year’s World Accreditation Day theme is “Accreditation: Empowering Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)”. Most companies in the UK are SMEs, but there are significant barriers to entry for them bringing new and innovative products into the UK Construction Market. These include obtaining investment and getting their products accepted by a traditional market which is notoriously slow to adopt.

The Accredited services that the BBA offers can bring confidence to the process that SMEs who are bringing sustainable innovations into the market follow. Impartial testing and certification services enable innovation and demonstrate fitness-for-purpose for use in an increasingly scrutinised industry. Certification by an Accredited Body can also encourage investment and help companies gain acceptance of their products by specifiers and warranty providers by reducing risk.

Because of the BBA’s UKAS Accreditation, investors, clients, specifiers and all other users of BBA Certification throughout the industry can be reassured that the output of the BBA is accurate, reliable, impartial and consistent and so sets BBA Certification apart from others in the marketplace.