Governments can recognise CABs in two different ways: administrative recognition, where no consideration of technical competence is required, or technical recognition, where consideration of technical competence is required.

Consideration of technical competence should be based on the relevant International Standards, and the persons making the assessment of the CAB should be competent in the relevant International Standard and technical area. Recognition may take the form of a license to operate, admission to an approved list of CABs or a pre-qualification list of suppliers.

Where there is an urgent need for a conformity assessment approach to be set up, the regulatory authorities could decide to directly assess and appoint bodies. However, the basis of the assessment might not be clear and it could be difficult for the bodies and their certificates to gain recognition in other countries.

Peer assessment

Peer assessment, also known as peer evaluation, is a conformity assessment activity used to ascertain the conformity of a person or organization with a set of specified requirements for membership of a group which the person or body wishes to join. The assessment is carried out by other members of the group, in other words the peers of the applicant. The specified requirements normally include relevant International Standards.
Requirements in the relevant standard, ISO/IEC 17040, contain:

• structural requirements;
• human resource requirements, including qualifications and selection, and languages and translation;
• information and documentation;
• peer assessment process requirements, including application for peer assessment or an extension of scope, review and acceptance of the application, preparation for the peer assessment process, appointment of peer assessment team, documentation review, on-site assessment, analysis of findings, peer assessment report, review of the peer assessment report, peer assessment in support of continuing membership of agreement group, and notification of changes;
• confidentiality requirements;
• complaints handling requirements;
• guidance on financial aspects, assessment techniques for use by peer assessment teams and information to be included in the peer assessment report.

Peer assessment practice is based on:

• competent assessors, drawn from members of the group;
• clearly specified membership criteria decided by the group;
• a methodical assessment of the candidate organization’s conformity with the criteria; and
• a report of the findings with sufficient information for the group to decide on the candidate organization’s suitability for membership.

The group will decide upon whether there is a need for periodic auditing and re-assessment of the members of the group. If so, the relevant parts of the process will be undertaken. The members of peer assessment agreement groups are generally all expert in the particular technical areas covered by the agreement and so provide a high level of technical competence for the peer assessment. On the other hand, the bodies could be in competition with each other and might not be totally impartial. The peer assessment scheme needs to be well-managed in order to maintain its effectiveness in inspiring confidence in the work of its members. One aspect of peer assessment in a multilateral arrangement is to ensure that the assessment teams are drawn from across the membership and do not involve assessors from two different members assessing each other’s organizations.

In conformity assessment, the process of peer assessment is specified in ISO/IEC 17040:2005, Conformity assessment - General requirements for peer assessment of conformity assessment bodies and accreditation bodies.

Examples of peer assessment groups for: