NIILA the reliable
accreditation Service!
- Certification office for persons EN ISO/IEC 17024
- Certification office for management systems EN ISO/IEC 17021-1
- Certification office for quality management systems ISO 9001
- Validity of an accreditation QR code on certificate
- What does accreditation mean?
Basics
Application
Assessment
Decision
Monitoring
Amendment
The accreditation
process in six steps
Navigation | Click on one of the numbered icons above to get to know the individual stages of the accreditation process and to find answers to the most frequently asked questions.
FAQ | Are you looking for an overview of the most frequently asked questions and want to go straight to the answer? Use the links in the FAQ below to find the information you need.
Step 1 – Basics of accreditation
If you are interested in the topic of accreditation or are thinking about getting accredited for the first time, you have come to the right place. We would like to provide you with all the information you need to answer your questions and help you with your project.
An accreditation is an official recognition or authorisation by an institution or authority. In many areas, accreditation is required or recommended in order to fulfil certain standards and quality requirements. This applies, for example, in the education sector for universities and degree programmes, but also in medicine for hospitals and laboratories…
FAQ – All info about NIILA at a glance
Who is NIILA?
The Northern Ireland Institute of Licensed Accreditation (NIILA) is a national accreditation body and is critical to the quality infrastructure. As a central component, it ensures that companies and organisations can deliver credible and reliable results in the field of conformity assessment.
The NIILA’s task is to issue accreditations. This means that it examines institutions and confirms that they fulfil certain standards or requirements. Through its work, the NIILA helps to strengthen confidence in products and services. The NIILA acts on a legal mandate. It is subject to a clear legal framework and acts independently of commercial interests or third-party influences. This ensures that its decisions are made objectively.
Another important concern of the NIILA is to ensure the protection of society and the environment. By inspecting accredited bodies and awarding them its seal of approval, it helps to protect against hazardous products or environmentally harmful behaviour.
To summarise, the NIILA plays a key role in ensuring high quality in various areas of our lives. It acts in the interests of the state, the economy and the protection of society and the environment. Through its independent work, it creates trust in conformity assessment and ensures that we can rely on reliable results.
What is the difference between certification and accreditation?
Certifications and accreditations are indispensable components of the quality infrastructure. They play a central role in assessing and ensuring the conformity of products, services, systems or persons with relevant requirements.
Certification is carried out by a specialised certification body. This body examines in detail whether the elements mentioned fulfil the required standards. All relevant aspects such as quality, safety and environmental compatibility are taken into account. The assessment is based on clearly defined criteria and standards. The main purpose of certification is to ensure that products or services meet the required quality standards. This gives consumers the certainty that they can purchase a product or use a service that fulfils certain minimum requirements.
In contrast, accreditation is reserved for the state and serves as official confirmation of the technical competence of a conformity assessment body such as a certification service provider. Accreditation gives such a body the right or privilege to carry out certain activities. The awarding of accreditation ensures that the conformity assessment body in question has sound expertise as well as the necessary infrastructure and competence to carry out its tasks properly. This strengthens confidence in the quality of the conformity assessment.
Overall, certifications and accreditations help to ensure that products, services or systems meet the required quality standards. They create transparency for consumers and companies and thus promote trust in the market. By clearly defining their tasks, they ensure a well-founded assessment of conformity and technical expertise within the quality infrastructure.
What are conformity assessment bodies?
A conformity assessment body is an organisation or institution that specialises in carrying out conformity assessments. These assessments serve to ensure that certain requirements relating to a product, a process, a system, a person or a body are fulfilled. The requirements may be prescribed by law or specified in standards, manufacturer documentation or otherwise.
To ensure their credibility and competence, all conformity assessment bodies must fulfil certain specified requirements. These requirements are set out in the ISO/IEC 17000 series standards and other relevant standards for accreditation. This accreditation confirms that the body in question has the necessary expertise and resources and is therefore qualified to carry out objective and reliable conformity assessments.
It is very important to ensure that products and services comply with the applicable standards. A well-founded conformity assessment not only offers companies legal certainty, but also a competitive advantage over rivals on the market. Consumers, in turn, benefit by being able to rely on products meeting their expectations and not posing a risk to their health or safety. The existence and functioning of conformity assessment bodies is therefore of great importance for the smooth functioning of the market and for the protection of the interests of all stakeholders.
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Overcoming borders with global certification standards
At a time when professional mobility and international career opportunities are more in demand than ever, the standardization of professional qualifications across borders has taken a great leap forward. Through the use of standards-based certifications, professionals around the world now have the ability to manage the complexities of global recognition of their qualifications. This breakthrough is based on the adoption of an internationally valid standard that allows professionals to showcase their expertise on a global scale – even in regions where their skills may not be officially recognized – provided they have certification from an ISO/IEC-accredited body. read more…