Accreditation

What is the benefit of accreditation?  

Accreditation means formal recognition by a specialised body. There is one such body per country. In Switzerland, this is the Swiss Accreditation Service (SAS), which is part of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). By accrediting certification bodies such as SQS, it confirms that these bodies are competent and have all the organisational prerequisites to issue certifications in a specific area of standardisation. The SAS supervises certification bodies as well as testing laboratories, inspection bodies and other conformity assessment bodies in the accredited area of standardisation in accordance with national and international legislation (Accreditation and Designation Ordinance, AccDO and EC Regulation No. 765/2008) as well as the ISO 17000 series of standards.