What is accreditation?

Accreditation is an independent assessment that ensures certification and inspection bodies have the technical competence and integrity of impartiality to deliver credible certification and assessment services. This is essential to building confidence and trust in certification and assessent results.

ANAB defines accreditation as: an independent evaluation of conformity assessment bodies (CABs) against recognized standards to carry out specific activities to ensure their integrity, impartiality, and competence. 

Why accreditation?

We believe in the integrity of standards and rigor of the certification and assessment processes. That's why it's our policy to achieve accreditation for our services wherever possible.

Our Accreditations

As an accredited certification and inspection body, NQA holds several accreditations.

ISO 17021-1:2015 - Certification Body 
This is the international standard that contains the principles and requirements for certification bodies that certify management systems. It ensures competence, consistency and impartiality of the certification body. 

• ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) To view our certificate click here.

• United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) To view our certificate click here.

ISO 17020:2012 - Inspection Body
This is the international standard that contains the principles and requirements for inspection bodies that carry out assessments on behalf of clients with the objective of providing information about the conformity of inspected items. It ensures competence, consistency and impartiality of the inspection body.

• United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) To view our certificate click here.

Who accredits us?

NQA is currently accredited for its services by the following Accreditation Bodies and industry regulators. These regulators regularly and rigorously assess us against international standards to ensure our competence, impartiality and performance capability.

• ANAB – the ANSI National Accreditation Board is the largest multi-disciplinary accreditation body in North America.

• UKAS – the United Kingdom Accreditation Service for which we have one of the widest scopes of accreditation covering most economic sectors.​

• CNAS – China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment (hereinafter referred to as CNAS) is the national accreditation body of China unitarily responsible for the accreditation of certification bodies, laboratories and inspection bodies, which is established under the approval of the Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People’s Republic of China (CNCA) and authorized by CNCA in accordance with the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Certification and Accreditation.

• EIAC – Emirates International Accreditation Centre (EIAC) was established pursuant to Law number (27) for the year 2015, issued by the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai, to become the governmental accreditation body of the Emirate of Dubai.

• FSSC – The FSSC 22000 Scheme is managed by the independent Foundation FSSC 22000. FSSC 22000 is recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) and developed in response to the needs of the international food sector. 

• IAQG - The IAQG sets the standard for quality within the worldwide supply chain of the aerospace industry. The organization is comprised of member companies within the aviation, apce and defense industries who design, develop, amnufacture and support original equipment at system or subsystem levels.

• IATF – the International Automotive Task Force for the provision of certification against IATF 16949 (Automotive Quality Management)

• IECQ (International Electrotechnical Commission Quality Assessment System for Electronic Components) – The IECQ is a worldwide approval and certification system covering the supply of electronic components and associated materials and assemblies (including modules) and processes. It uses quality assessment specifications that are based on International Standards prepared by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

Impartiality statement 

Impartiality is a fundamental principle of accredited certification. This means that certification decisions are based solely on objective evidence of conformity and are not influenced by any other interests.

We take potential conflicts of interest very seriously and ensure that impartiality is not compromised at any time. In particular, we ensure that, irrespective of which consultancy may have been employed to implement or maintain a client's management system:

• Certification will not be simpler, easier, faster or less expensive

• Certification decisions will be based solely on the objective evidence

Unaccredited certification

NQA's policy is to provide accredited certification wherever possible. Some schemes do not have an accreditation and in those cases we still apply the same rigor, processes, competence requirements and impartiality as if it were accredited.

Unaccredited certification can be an attractive way of achieving certification quickly and cheaply. However, it can have serious shortcomings including:

• Failure to meet customer requirements, particularly contractual obligations

• Lack of integrity which can damage reputation

• Wasted time, budget and resources