Sanctions and appeals
A shared responsibility
Accredia regularly monitors the behaviour of accredited bodies and laboratories and adopts a strict discipline for handling appeals.
Through constant surveillance of the activities of accredited bodies and laboratories, Accredia continuously ensures the value and reliability of certification, inspection and verification, testing and calibration services issued in the market. Periodic audits conducted by the National Accreditation Body ensure that the requirements for accreditation are always met, and compliance with reference standards and other applicable documents is guaranteed.
If a body or laboratory fails to comply, Accredia intervenes with sanctions of varying degrees, depending on the severity of the anomaly found.
If a body or laboratory finds irregularities in Accredia’s behavior with respect to a decision of the Management, or to the work of the Sectoral Accreditation Committees, the discipline of appeals applies.
Sanctions policy
During the four-year period of validity of the accreditation certificate, Accredia conducts periodic assessments to ensure compliance with the requirements.
Over the four-year period of the accreditation cycle, Accredia, in agreement with the accredited body or laboratory, establishes a periodic program of assessments and other types of verification.
If the results of the assessments reveal situations that may compromise the value of services issued under accreditation, the National Accreditation Body shall promptly take sanction measures to protect the credibility of the conformity assessment system.
For each category of accredited body or laboratory, the discipline of sanctions applies according to the requirements specified in the General Regulations for Accreditation. In the case of certification, inspection and verification bodies, sanction measures may be minor or major.
Minor measures
Temporary suspension of pending extension applications or practices, temporary suspension of accreditation applications for new fields of activity, request for implementation of corrective actions.
Major measures
Reduction (temporary or permanent), suspension or revocation of accreditation, suspension of the use of the accreditation mark on test laboratory reports.
Discipline of appeals
Accredited bodies and laboratories may appeal to Accredia. The Appeals Commission handles appeals according to special procedures.
Under certain circumstances, accredited bodies and laboratories may file appeals to Accredia. Appeals may concern either the work of the Departments (e.g., the rejection of an application for accreditation, extension or renewal) or the work of the Sectoral Accreditation Committees (e.g., the taking of a sanction measure) and refer to procedural or technical grounds.
The Appeals Committee is the statutory body responsible for handling appeal cases, which are processed through the collection and preliminary screening of all information and data useful for the preliminary investigation.
For accredited bodies and laboratories, the appeals discipline is applied according to the requirements specified in General Regulation RG-06 “Regulation of the Appeals Commission.”