Action required

Effective November 1st, 2019, all customers are required to take note of the changes in the revised Accreditation Program Overview: https://www.scc.ca/en/about-scc/publications/exigences-et-procedures-accreditation/accreditation-services-accreditation-program-overview . The changes are noted below.

Affected customers

These changes affect all stakeholders in SCC’s accreditation and recognition programs

Background

SCC’s Accreditation Services has issued an updated version of the Accreditation Program Overview. The primary purpose of this document is to outline how the accreditation services are organized and how the program operates. It is regularly reviewed and updated and this revision includes new and modified content.

SCC has made several changes as part of its ongoing process to transition to the new version of ISO/IEC 17011:2017 Conformity assessment — Requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies, as well as to mitigate corporate risk in some areas.

New requirements

What’s New:

• In the “Application” section, SCC has clarified the application process steps and added criteria against which any applicant will be evaluated, and describes situations in which an application may be rejected.

• In the section “Assessing Customer Readiness”, SCC has added that additional costs may be incurred if the initial document review exceeds two days’ worth of effort.

• In section “A.2. Accreditation Cycle”, SCC has added witness audit requirements for both stage 1 and stage 2 audits.

• A new section “A.4. EnMS Technical Areas Recognition” has been added to cover the Energy Management Program.

• A new section “F.7. Accreditation of offsite sample preparation location as part of the accreditation of a mineral analysis laboratory” has been added.

• Updates for IAF MD 4, MD 11, and ILAC P1.

Additionally, several formatting and minor editorial changes have been made to the document for readability and better understanding.

Deadline

The revised Accreditation Program Overview is in effect Friday, November 1st, 2019.

Questions?

Please contact Elias Rafoul, Vice President, Accreditation Services, at elias.rafoul@scc.ca or +1 613 238 3222 ext. 329 for more information.