THE DEVELOPMENT OF LABORATORY ACCREDITATION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

The paper describes the development of laboratory accreditation in the United Kingdom construction industry from the original abortive proposals for an industry testing agency, to the introduction of the BRMCA register of test houses as the first industry laboratory accreditation scheme, the British Standards Institution scheme, and finally the newly created National Testing Laboratory Accreditation Scheme, NATLAS. The differences between these schemes and the contribution they have made to the improvement in concrete testing are described together with the extent to which they have been used for specifying testing standards for concrete in building and civil engineering contracts. The paper concludes by describing the NATLAS scheme, accreditation standard and method of operation and its potential for assuring future testing standards for concrete. For the covering abstract of the congress see TRIS 378413. (TRRL)

• Supplemental Notes:
  • VII ERMCO Congress and Exhibition, London, May 22-26, 1983. Concrete Technology, Working Sessions W13A, W14A.
• Corporate Authors:

  British Ready Mixed Concrete Association

  Shepperton House, Green Lane
  Shepperton, Middlesex,   England 
• Authors:
  • ROGERS, J
  • Hopwood, R
• Publication Date: 1983

Media Info

• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 8 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Civil engineering; Compliance; Concrete; Concrete tests; Conferences; Construction industry; Industries; Laboratories; Specifications; Standards; Tests
• Uncontrolled Terms: Accreditation
• Geographic Terms: United Kingdom
• ITRD Terms: 178: Compliance (specif); 4755: Concrete; 8525: Conference; 332: Industry; 6237: Laboratory (not an organization); 187: Specification (standard); 6255: Test; 8119: United Kingdom
• Subject Areas: Construction; Highways; Materials; Planning and Forecasting; I32: Concrete; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00378445
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 30 1983 12:00AM