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Accreditation of Inspection Bodies

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), made hugely popular by ISO 9000 certification, has also developed standards for conformity assessment bodies like inspection bodies, certification bodies and laboratories.

The international standard which applies to Inspection Bodies is ISO 17020 – 1998 which prescribes various requirements for inspection bodies. ISO 17020, entitled “General Criteria for the Operation of Various Types of bodies Performing Inspection”, is an internationally recognized standard for the competence of inspection bodies. These requirements cover impartiality, independence and integrity, administrative requirements like legal status, liability provisions and confidentiality, quality system documentation, resource requirements including competence, training and supervision, facilities and equipment, inspection methods and procedures, handling of samples, inspection reports, records, complaints and appeals etc. ISO 17020 should not be confused with ISO 9001, which is not require evaluation of the technical competence of an inspection body and it should not be regarded as an ‘acceptable’ alternative to ISO 17020.

It has also become important worldwide that the competence of such bodies for inspection in various technical areas like food, engineering, construction etc is evaluated and attested. Thus, a process of accreditation of conformity assessment bodies has developed worldwide. There is also a system of equivalence of accreditations to facilitate acceptance of inspection reports of one country in another country which has been mentioned in the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement).

In India, the national accreditation body for inspection bodies is the National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) under the Quality Council of India.

The accreditation process has the following steps:

1. Review of documented system of the inspection body to evaluate if it meets ISO 17020
2. Office assessment to verify evidence of compliance with ISO 17020 and the documented system of the inspection body
3. Witnessing of on site assessments by the inspectors of the inspection body by the assessors from the accreditation body to adjudge the demonstrated competence of the inspection body in different technical areas.

When an inspection body successfully undergoes these evaluations, it can be granted accreditation which is valid for a period of 3 years.

During the period of validity, NABCB carries out annual surveillance and witnessing of inspections based on quantum of inspection certificates issued by an inspection body and then a reaccreditation assessment towards the end of the 3 year period. There are provisions for addition of new scopes, suspension and withdrawal of accreditation in the system.

There is a worldwide trend for reliance on accredited inspection bodies by various regulators who are responsible for prescribing standards and checking compliance to the. India has a large inspector based regulatory regime in various sectors like Factory Inspectors, Food Inspectors, Drugs Inspectors, Boiler inspectors etc. It is possible to assign the inspection work to professional agencies duly accredited under the international system.

The above has huge potential benefits since the areas where inspections are resorted to pertain to public utilities like fire safety, electrical safety, and building construction and completion under various regulations, purchase of products which go into public projects like steel and PVC pipes,  or inspection of mass consumption items like agrifood products and textiles and if inspections are done by independent, accredited bodies, the final quality of products and services is likely to improve thus benefitting the common man.

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