Secretariat Staff

 The ILAC Secretariat said farewell to Alison Hay, Administrator, ILAC Secretariat in July. Alison made a valuable contribution to the work of the ILAC Secretariat over the past 6 years and we wish her well in her future undertakings.

 We are pleased to welcome Joelle Nicolas to the ILAC Secretariat. Joelle commenced work in the Secretariat on 18 August 2011.

 Joelle migrated to Australia in the mid 80s from Mauritius. After working for 11 years in the Public Service, Joelle took up a position with NATA in February 1997 to work in certification. With the creation of  NCSI, a subsidiary of NATA, later in the same year, Joelle officially moved from NATA to NCSI. In 2008, Joelle returned to NATA as Secretary for the field of Measurement Science and Technology.

 The current staff of the ILAC Secretariat, all of whom work part time, is therefore:

Annette Dever                ILAC Secretary

Alan Squirrell                 ILAC Executive Liaison Officer
Sharon Kelly                  ILAC Coordinator
Joelle Nicolas                 ILAC Administrator
Rose Bevins                  ILAC Administrator

The ILAC Arrangement

 As at 30 August 2011, there were 72 Signatories (Full Members) to the ILAC Arrangement, representing 59 economies.

 Progress is continuing towards establishing an international Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) for Inspection.

 ILAC Membership

ILAC membership as at 30 August 2011 is as follows:

• 72 Full Members (Signatories to the ILAC Arrangement) representing 59 economies;
• 20 Associates representing 32 economies;
• 19 Affiliates representing 22 economies;
• 5 Regional Cooperation Bodies
• 26 Stakeholders

 The ILAC membership now stands at 142 organisations and covers a total of 109 different economies worldwide. Approximately 39,000 laboratories and over 6,600 inspection bodies are accredited by the 72 ILAC Full Members (signatories to the ILAC Arrangement).

 ILAC Executive

 The ILAC Executive met in Istanbul, Turkey on 21 June 2011 and this was followed by a joint meeting of the ILAC and IAF Executives on the 22nd. Both meetings were very productive and were very well supported by the excellent arrangements undertaken by our hosts, TURKAK.

 In 2011 the ILAC Executive Committee commenced their review of the ILAC Articles and Bylaws and the Deed of Agreement for the provision of the ILAC Secretariat Services, during the two day meeting in March. The work on the revision of the Articles and Bylaws is progressing well and the details of the Deed of Agreement between ILAC and NATA have been finalised and this document has been distributed to members for information and final review. The Executive Committee has made further progress on the administrative aspects of integrating the inspection activity into the ILAC structure, with Mr Lal Ilan, from UKAS being appointed as Acting Chair of the ILAC Inspection Committee.

 The ILAC and IAF Executive Committees are currently working with the International Telecommunications Union Standardisation Sector (ITU-T) on the development of a tripartite MoU between the three organisations, which will lay the foundations for cooperation in areas of mutual activity in the future.

 ILAC Liaisons

The Liaison Database, located in the members area of the ILAC website, continues to serve as the main repository for the ever increasing number of reports and documents that are produced as part of ILAC’s liaison activity.   It can be accessed via the members area of the ILAC website. (ILAC members who have not as yet sought access to the Members Area of the website can do so on-line, via the ‘Home’ page of the website).

ILAC thanks all of the ILAC liaison officers, and their organisations, who give up their time to assist ILAC in carrying out these activities for the benefit of all ILAC members.

 US CPSC Updates

All members with laboratories involved in testing children’s products under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) that was signed by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) are reminded to ensure both they and their accredited laboratories have subscribed to the update service provided the CPSC. The legislation impacts on nearly all children’s products entering the US market and new requirements are added regularly. 

In addition to more stringent criteria and new requirements for children’s products, CPSIA mandates that children’s products be tested by CPSC-recognized laboratories. CPSC recognition requires laboratories to have ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation for the specific tests, with the accreditation from an accreditation body who is a signatory to the ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA).  Whether it be lead in toys or safety of cribs, the purpose of this law is to enhance the safety of children’s products.  For a comprehensive list and schedule of items and updates, please visit www.cpsc.gov/ABOUT/Cpsia/cpsia.HTML.