Accreditation bodies and the ILAC MRA

Accreditation is a third-party attestation of competence against ISO/IEC 17025, for a defined scope. Accreditation bodies are themselves peer-evaluated within regional cooperations (EA, APAC, IAAC, AFRAC, ARAC) and internationally under ILAC. The MRA means a calibration certificate from an accredited laboratory in one signatory economy is recognised in another.

What to verify

• The accreditation body is an ILAC MRA signatory for calibration.
• The laboratory's accreditation number and scope are listed on the body's public directory and are current.
• The certificate carries the accreditation symbol and number — a plain letterhead certificate from an accredited laboratory may be a non-accredited calibration.

ILAC-P10 sets the policy that makes this matter: accreditation bodies expect traceability to be demonstrated through accredited calibration or NMI services.

How the recognition chain works

Accreditation is a third-party attestation of competence against ISO/IEC 17025, for a defined scope. What makes a certificate from another country mean anything is that accreditation bodies are themselves peer-evaluated: regionally through cooperations such as EA in Europe, APAC in Asia-Pacific and IAAC in the Americas, and globally through the ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement. A signatory's accredited certificates are recognised as equivalent by every other signatory, which is what stops every border being a fresh assessment.

Every row is per-scope rather than per-organisation, and the recognition only reaches as far as the bottom row. A certificate for work outside the accredited scope, issued by an excellent laboratory accredited by an MRA signatory, carries none of it.

Verifying, in about two minutes

• Confirm the accreditation body is an ILAC MRA signatory for calibration — the signatory list is public, and testing-only signatories exist.
• Find the laboratory on the body's public directory by its accreditation number, and confirm the accreditation is current. Symbols on certificate templates outlive suspensions.
• Open the published scope and find the row covering your quantity, range and method. This is the step that is skipped and the one that most often fails.
• Check the certificate carries the accreditation symbol or a reference to the accreditation, and that the work described is inside that row.
• For the uncertainty, compare against the CMC in that row. It should be equal or larger; smaller is a red flag under ILAC-P14.

Why this is the load-bearing check

ILAC-P10 is the policy that makes accreditation matter for traceability rather than merely for reassurance: accreditation bodies expect traceability to be demonstrated through accredited calibration or an NMI service. Using a non-accredited provider is not absolutely forbidden, but it moves the burden onto you — you must then demonstrate that provider's competence, traceability and uncertainty yourself, which means assessing the supplier, reviewing their method and budget, and evidencing their own references. That is a serious piece of work, and it is almost always cheaper to use an accredited supplier.