Accreditation
The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) is the sole national accreditation body recognised by government to assess, against internationally agreed standards, organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services. Accreditation by UKAS demonstrates the competence, impartiality and performance capability of these evaluators.
Thames Laboratories has been accredited by UKAS to carry out surveys and inspections under ISO 17020, the internationally recognised standard for the competence of inspection bodies. ISO 17020 should not be confused withthe quality management standard ISO 9001:2000: the latter is specific to quality management systems and it does not require evaluation of the technical competence of an inspection body. ISO 9001:2000 is not regarded as an acceptable alternative to ISO 17020.
More information about ISO 17020 (PDF format)/
Thames Laboratories and ISO 17020 (PDF)
Thames Laboratories has also been assessed by UKAS as meeting the requirements ofISO 17025 'General Requirements for the Competence of Testing and CalibrationLaboratories'.
