Note: this is an update to the Technical Bulletin BS EN 13501 Classification Standards published 16 November 2021 to include BR135.
Issuing of BS EN 13501 and BR135 Classification reports under ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation
This Technical Bulletin has been prepared for UKAS customers that are currently issuing classification reports for any of the suite of BS EN 13501 Classification Standards for Fire classification of construction products and building elements – Classification using data from either reaction to fire or resistance to fire tests or BR135 – Fire performance of external thermal insulation for walls of multistorey buildings.
UKAS customers engaged in these areas of activity have historically issued classification reports under their ISO/IEC 17025 testing accreditation and displaying the UKAS testing symbol of accreditation if the classification standard was listed in their published schedule of accreditation.
There have been instances where classification reports, issued under an ISO/IEC 17025 testing accreditation, have been incorrectly considered product certificates and confusion has arisen as to the status and validity of such reports. Following a review of the situation it has been decided that these classification standards are not actual test methods and therefore ISO/IEC 17025 is not the applicable standard for accreditation.
Organisations currently accredited for these classification standards will see their respective UKAS testing schedules of accreditation revised immediately. References to BS EN 13501 and BR135 will remain but the wording and positioning of the entries in the schedule will make it clear that only the methods of test, required by these documents, are performed under accreditation. A classification report will not therefore be permitted to be issued displaying the UKAS testing symbol from the date of this Technical Bulletin.
An organisation that wishes to issue BS EN 13501 or BR135 classification reports displaying a UKAS symbol of accreditation would need to consider obtaining accreditation to ISO/IEC 17065.
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