The Saint Lucia Bureau of Standards (SLBS) is pleased to inform that it has added another achievement to its list of successes, the accreditation of the SLBS Compliance Department to ISO/IEC 17020:2012 Conformity assessment — Requirements for the operation of various types of bodies performing inspection.

ISO/IEC 17020:2012 specifies requirements for the competence of bodies performing inspection and for the impartiality and consistency of their inspection activities. It applies to inspection bodies of type A, B or C, as defined in ISO/IEC 17020:2012, and it applies to any stage of inspection.

The ISO 17020 accreditation builds on other previous awards namely, ISO 17025 accreditation and recertification to ISO 9001:2015.  These achievements affirm the SLBS’ ability to consistently provide quality services and deliver results which meet global technical requirements.

The SLBS is immensely proud of this second 2^nd accreditation award by a CARICOM institution, the Jamaica National Agency for Accreditation (JANAAC).  The SLBS Metrology Laboratory was the first calibration laboratory accredited by JANAAC in November 2020.

JANAAC’s Accreditation Council met on Wednesday 12^th October 2022, and approved the recommendation from the Accreditation Evaluation Committee (AEC), for the granting of Accreditation Approval to the ISO/IEC 17020:2012 Standard.

 Accreditation Scope:

1. Inspection and Testing of Household Electrical Appliances
2. Label Assessment
3. Inspection of New & Used Pneumatic; Passenger and Non-Passenger Vehicle Tyres.

The effective date of the award is 3^rd October 2022, the date of the AEC recommendation.

Funding for accreditation was provided under a CROSQ-11^th EDF TBT Project.