§ Mr. Barry FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps he is taking to ensure that other EEC countries are complying with the Euro-norm agreement on measurement accreditation.
§ Mr. ForthThe United Kingdom's national measurement accreditation service (NAMAS) is co-operating with other Community member states to ensure the implementation of the European standards, the EN 45000 series, which define the criteria for laboratories, the accreditation of laboratories and for the accreditation bodies. These standards are expected to be increasingly used by the Commission in new approach directives and each member state will be responsible to ensure that the requirements of the directives are fully met.
§ Mr. Barry FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry which EEC countries have a national measurement accreditation service to the same standard as the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. ForthThe EEC Commission has placed a contract with the French Reseau National d'Essais (RNE) to carry out a study of accreditation systems operated by member states with the aim of establishing their compliances with international codes of practice and in particular the European standards for accreditation based on the EN 45000 series standards. It is expected that this report will be available in December 1989 and the national measurement accreditation service (NAMAS) will examine the report in detail.
§ Mr. Barry FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry which EEC countries have sought the advice of his Department on measurement accreditation.
§ Mr. ForthMany of the EEC countries have discussed with the Department's national measurement accreditation service (NAMAS) the development of their own accreditation systems. Additionally representatives of seven member states have attended the NAMAS assessor training course to gain experience of assessment techniques and to assist in setting up their own training courses.