With ever-evolving building safety standards, there’s never been a better time to get to grips with accreditation and certification
The most recent official estimates put the value of the UK’s construction industry at £181bn per year. Although the majority of this work is conducted in the private sector, approximately a quarter of the output comes from the public sector. Given the size and importance of this industry, everyone from architects and specifiers to construction product manufacturers and site managers recognise the value of having a robust quality assurance system in place.
To help individual organisations implement quality assurance systems, the construction industry is served by several bodies that provide a variety of certification, testing, inspection and calibration services (collectively known as conformity assessment services). Together with internationally recognised standards, accredited conformity assessment services help ensure that materials are fit for purpose, put in the appropriate place, using the correct procedures, with the proper level of competence.
How does accreditation support the construction industry?
Accreditation is instrumental in driving the adoption of best practice, efficiency and quality throughout the public building and construction sector; from planning, design and specification, through to site management, ongoing building maintenance and decommissioning.
Nearly all construction materials, ranging from timber, masonry and concrete to insulation, pipes and glass are certified for specification compliance against the product conformity standard ISO/IEC 17065. Site samples and materials are tested for classification, durability and safety characteristics in laboratories accredited to ISO/IEC 17025. Similarly, the accuracy of measurements such as pressure, humidity, electrical, mass and dimensional values is confirmed through calibration laboratories accredited to the same standard.
Inspection bodies accredited to ISO/IEC 17020 evaluate lifting, welding and work equipment used in everyday construction activities, as well as the carriage of dangerous goods to and from site. Companies providing asbestos surveys and legionella risk assessments to building duty holders are accredited by UKAS, as are those that inspect gas, electric and pressure vessel installations.
One of accreditation’s main advantages is that is often able to adapt more quickly and flexibly than regulation. This empowers accreditation to better support quality and safety in emerging and evolving sectors. For example, Building Information Modelling (BIM) is continuing to revolutionise the construction sector by allowing buildings to be analysed and problems solved in a virtual environment during the design stage. In September 2022, UKAS became the first national accreditation body in the world to grant accreditations to ISO 19650-2, the BIM certification standard. In addition to improving the quality and efficiency of build assets, using accredited BIM certification gives confidence that industry best practices have been utilised to mitigate risk and increase safety throughout the building’s lifecycle.
Managing certification
To help reach sustainability targets and build robust supply chains, many organisations in both the public and private sector specify prospective suppliers must have their management systems certified. Increasingly these procurers will only accept certificates issued by a certification body that has been accredited by a recognised National Accreditation Body (NAB) such as UKAS.
Often used either interchangeably or together, the terms ‘accreditation’ and ‘certification’ represent two distinct stages of the quality assurance process. Certification is the assessment of whether a management system, product or person meets the criteria laid out in a generic quality standard or scheme. Operating at the level above, accreditation is the determination of the competence of the certification body to perform specific activities under a recognised international or national standard or scheme. In other words, if certification bodies are ‘the checkers’ then UKAS’s role as the UK’s sole government-appointed NAB is to ‘check the checkers’.
Whilst it is not mandatory for certification bodies to be accredited by an NAB, understanding the differences between accredited and non-accredited certification bodies will help businesses make an informed choice about which type of certification suits their needs. Accredited certification bodies are able to demonstrate that they have been rigorously assessed by an independent authority against internationally recognised standards. Accreditation helps generate confidence in the competence and impartiality of accredited certification bodies, and in turn, the competence and impartiality of organisations that have been certified by accredited certification bodies. As well as becoming the expected industry norm for many sectors, accredited certification also offers market differentiation and shows credible evidence of best practice.
As UKAS is a signatory to IAF, ILAC and EA multilateral agreements, accredited certificates are recognised in over 100 different economies. This delivers a truly worldwide ‘accredited once, accepted everywhere’ service, which could prove crucial in an increasingly competitive and global construction industry.
Non-accredited certification bodies are not subject to this level of independent scrutiny. This makes it more difficult to establish their competence and impartiality, to both those seeking certification and those specifying management systems certification during the procurement process. Non-accredited certificates also do not benefit from the same level of international recognition and acceptance as accredited certificates, which could lead to the certification process having to be repeated for each target economy. Businesses with non-accredited certificates therefore run the significant risk of being excluded from the tendering process and losing ground in the marketplace, both at home and abroad.
Checking certificate validity for accreditation can be easy
There are nearly two million valid management systems certificates in use across the world, with over 75,000 of them being held by UK based companies. More than 90% of these certificates are for one of the three most popular management system standards; namely ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environmental) and ISO 45001 (occupational health and safety).
Whilst independently checking the authenticity of each applicant’s certification is an integral part of procurement due diligence, it can be a time-consuming and fragmented activity.
Launched in June 2022, CertCheck is a free online database that allows users to independently verify the authenticity and validity of UKAS accredited certifications. This growing database contains more than 400,000 management systems certifications issued worldwide by over 100 UKAS accredited certification bodies.
All of the common management systems certifications are represented; ranging from the long-established quality (ISO 9001), environmental (ISO 14001) and occupational health and safety (ISO 45001) standards; to newer information security (ISO 27001), energy management (ISO 50001) and supply chain security (ISO 28000) standards.
CertCheck provides a simple confirmation whether a certification is both genuine and current
By automating and combining the previously separate certification and accreditation verification stages into one comprehensive yet straightforward online service, CertCheck brings speed, clarity and confidence to the accredited certification vetting process.
