News article • 2 mins read
The development team received a significant number of enquiries from a range of stakeholders in 2021/2022, notably regarding personnel certification, stemming from government initiatives such as Net Zero.
UKAS accredited the first Certification Body delivering an ICO approved GDPR scheme, alongside work on new projects in Data Assurance Identity and Internet of Things. New accreditations were also granted in the food/farming and environmental sectors such as Protected Food Names, FAMI-QMS, Farm First and Compost Certification Scheme.
In healthcare, new assessment approaches were further developed to support government requirements for COVID-19 services to be underpinned by accreditation. The pilot covering Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering service was also completed with all 4 pilot participants gaining accreditation. Development work continues in broadening the areas of health and social care which can fall under accredited conformity assessment activities.
Assessment approaches are being developed for UKAS’s first verification and validation application (outside of Green House Gases) under ISO/IEC 17029. UKAS is also working with Assurance Service International to support its two-tier assurance programme for a range of sustainability schemes underpinned by accreditation to ISO/IEC 17065.
eLearning modules that provide awareness on scheme requirements have launched to assist Scheme Owners in developing compliant and internationally recognisable schemes. Further conformity assessment scheme modules are planned for the coming year.
You can find out more about new areas of accreditation currently in development here.