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UKAS Accreditation for PHS Compliance
17 May 2011
March 2011 – Workplace safety expert, PHS Compliance, has announced the successful renewal of its UKAS Inspection Body accreditation to ISO/IEC 17020: 2004, following detailed reappraisal of its electrical testing division. The stringent technical and quality standards assessed by UKAS are challenging to meet and annual audits mean that organisations holding the accreditation must be able to demonstrate consistent quality standards in the provision of inspection services.
UKAS (the United Kingdom Accreditation Service) is the sole national accreditation body recognised by government to assess organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services against internationally agreed standards. Accreditation by UKAS demonstrates the competence, impartiality and performance capability of these evaluators.
UKAS says that choosing an accredited supplier ‘means that the customer reduces the risk of selecting an incompetent evaluator and paying for, or more seriously, acting upon invalid results’. According to UKAS, ‘too many of Britain's companies run the risk of undermining their long-term success by purchasing independent evaluations that are not UKAS accredited’.
The ‘schedule of accreditation’ issued by UKAS to PHS Compliance concerns inspection of low voltage electrical installations and electrical appliances. This covers the work the company does to help customers comply with safety legislation for fixed electrical installations and portable appliances (PAT).
Commenting on the approval, managing director of PHS Compliance, Paul Caddick, enthused; “We are enormously proud to hold the UKAS accreditation and deliver what it stands for; excellence in delivery of safety services and confidence for organisations who seek to fulfil their legislative responsibility in a diligent and safe manner.
“This goes way beyond most awards,” continued Caddick. “It assesses the provider at every level and confirms that processes and procedures are robust, reliable and technically accurate. The current assessment included site visits to see our engineers in operation and the auditors were very complimentary of the standard of our delivery. This is about an industry-leading quality that is delivered every day, by every engineer and through every test - repeatable quality that we have founded PHS Compliance upon.”
In addition to its UKAS accreditation, PHS Compliance has recently received renewed CHAS accreditation (the Contractor’s Health & Safety Assessment Scheme), SAFE Contractor accreditation in recognition of reaching health and safety standards set by SSIP (Safety Schemes in Procurement) and ISOQAR certification for the company’s health and safety management system to BS OHSAS 18001: 2007, environmental management system to ISO 14001:2004 and also its quality management system to ISO 9001:2008. As part of the environmental management system, ISO41001 was also achieved in recognition of the high qualifying standard for the UKAS accreditation.
Compliance