Bulletin number:
Affected program:
Action required
- All accredited labs should purchase a copy of ISO/IEC 17025:2017.
- All accredited labs should review their existing quality system against the new standard, and prepare for their first assessment to the new standard based on the schedule laid out below.
Affected customers
The new standard affects all applicants and accredited testing, and calibration laboratories, as well as, those labs accredited by other Accreditation Bodies signatories to the ILAC MRA and that are being used by SCC accredited certification bodies for products, processes and services.
Background
ISO/IEC 17025:2017 was published on November 30th, 2017, and SCC (along with its partners, Bureau de normalisation du Québec (BNQ) and National Research Council Calibration Laboratory Assessment Services (NRC-CLAS)) has begun implementing its plan to transition every testing and calibration lab accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2005.
SCC will transition to assessing to the 2017 standard according to the following schedule:
ISO/IEC 17025 Key Dates:
January 01, 2018 - September 01, 2018:
- Laboratories have the option of being reassessed to ISO/IEC 17025:2005 or ISO/IEC 17025:2017
After September 01, 2018:
- All laboratories must be assessed to the new version.
September 01 – December 31, 2018:
- Laboratories may request that they are assessed to ISO/IEC 17025:2005 if there are valid, extenuating circumstances including, but not limited, to:
1.Corporate/Group accreditation laboratories that are working on a consolidated approach to implementing the revised standard.
2.Laboratories that hold two or more accreditations from different accreditation bodies, who are required to meet different transition and implementation plans developed by the accreditation bodies.
3.When a laboratory requests that their system be assessed to ISO/IEC 17025:2005, the laboratory must submit a plan on how accreditation to the revised version of the standard will be attained by the deadline, taking into account that the laboratory must be assessed to the revised version.
January 01, 2019:
- All laboratories shall be assessed to the revised version of the standard.
SCC, along with Canadian Association for Laboratory Accreditation (CALA), as well as BNQ and NRC-CLAS, has created a web page on the transition to ISO/IEC 17025:2017. It contains information on the new standard, the timeline for assessments to the new standard, and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).
This is the third in a series of bulletins that SCC will issue with regards to the transition to the new version of ISO/IEC 17025. The first two are available here:
- https://www.scc.ca/en/accreditation/bulletins/accreditation-services-bulletin-2017-10
- https://www.scc.ca/en/accreditation/bulletins/accreditation-services-bulletin-2017-27
New requirements
ISO has prepared an overview publication that outlines the changes from the 2005 version to the new version; it is available here: https://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/store/en/PUB100424.pdf
Deadline
All laboratories will have until November 20th, 2020 to obtain accreditation to the new standard. After that time, accreditations certificates for ISO/IEC 17025:2005 will no longer be valid.
Questions?
Please contact Cynthia Milito, Acting Vice President, Accreditation Services, at cynthia.milito@scc.ca or +1 613 238 3222 ext. 489 for more information.