Over the past few years the ISO Committee on Reference Materials (ISO REMCO) has been working on a series of standards relating to the reference material industry. One of these standards (ISO Guide 34) was produced with the intention of setting out the requirements with which a producer should demonstrate that it operates. The publication of this standard paved the way for the formal assessment of RM producers against a clearly defined specification. ISO Guide 34 was taken up in certain parts of the world including Australia and the USA.

However, there has been a long-standing international debate as to whether accreditation should be to ISO/IEC 17025, ISO Guide 34, or a combination of both. The issue was finally settled at the International Laboratory Accreditation Co-operation (ILAC) General Assembly in October 2004, where it was decided that the accreditation of RM producers should be based on the harmonised criteria of ISO Guide 34 and ISO/IEC 17025 in combination.

With funding from the VAM programme, UKAS is developing an accreditation service for RM producers, based upon ILAC�s resolutions. Once formulated, UKAS will trial the service�s effectiveness in a pilot programme, to which a number of producers have already expressed an interest in taking part. Subject to the agreement of stakeholders that the developed accreditation service is providing the users of reference materials with a suitable degree of confidence, all successful participants in the trial will be accredited and the new service established.

Rob Bettinson

This article was first published in Laboratory News, April 2005, p8. Further information about Laboratory News can be found at www.labnews.co.uk.