Left: Building and Construction Minister Hon Clayton Cosgrove presents the first Building Consent Authority accreditation certificate to Palmerston North City Council Development Services Manager Shayne Harris. Looking on are Deputy Mayor John Hornblow and Chair of the Testing Laboratory Registration Council, Dr Robin Pratt.

Palmerston North City Council celebrated being the first local authority to be accredited as a building consent authority with a function on 23 July at which Building and Construction Minister Clayton Cosgrove presented the council with an accreditation certificate.

Mr Cosgrove congratulated the council, saying that its accreditation was a major milestone in building sector reforms aimed at ensuring that buildings are designed, built and inspected right the first time.

“Councils are the consumer’s last line of defence for ensuring that our homes and other buildings have been built right,” Mr Cosgrove said. “The accreditation of building consent authorities will mean that councils will lift their game and deliver a better service to people needing building consents.”

All councils are required to be accredited and registered as building consent authorities in order to continue to undertake building consent processing and inspection functions. The standards and criteria for accreditation are published by the Department of Building and Housing in the Building (Accreditation of Building Consent Authorities) Regulations 2006.

IANZ chairman Robin Pratt told the ceremony that the council’s building controls department had been through a rigorous assessment process with experts in accreditation in building control systems, and in building design and construction.

“Our assessment team critically assessed the council’s processes and procedures as well as the competency of its staff and facilities,” he said. “Inevitably, in first assessments such as this, some minor gaps in the council’s processes were identified, but the council addressed these issues with enthusiasm and efficiency.

“Being the first to achieve accreditation is just reward for the tremendous amount of work they have put in.”

Mr Cosgrove said Palmerston North City Council’s accreditation reflected its commitment to, and investment in, the task over the past two years.

“The council has boosted its building controls staff numbers by eight, from 12 to 20, and has put these staff through training programmes so they are well equipped to meet the new, high quality inspections and processing standards,” he said. “The council has also upgraded its information technology, with field staff now using electronic tablets to input data into the database. These investments will directly benefit people who apply for building consents.

“You have invested in your people and your systems, and the hard work has paid off.”

However, Mr Cosgrove conceded that some councils were finding it a challenge to meet accreditation requirements. The Government has provided a $3 million accreditation assistance package to help them and has extended the timeframe by which councils need to achieve accreditation.

Issued by the Department of Building and Housing, Wellington, 25 July 2007

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ANNUAL REPORT

Small rise in annual assessment numbers
A small rise in the number of IANZ accreditation assessments was recorded during the year ending 30 June 2007, from 1714 to 1728. New assessments for Building Consent Authorities and the Ministry of Health’s National Screening Unit helped off-set a decline in medical testing laboratory accreditations following a number of laboratory amalgamations. Assessment numbers for calibration laboratories and radiology services recorded small rises, while testing laboratories numbers were down slightly on last year. Fuller details are given in the 2006-2007 annual report of the Testing Laboratory Registration Council, which has just been published.

While revenue from accreditation services increased in 2006-2007 to $4,176,128 ($3,642,041 2005-2006), the service recorded a loss of $190,367 ($150,384 loss in 2005-2006). Dr Llewellyn Richards, IANZ Chief Executive, was disappointed with this result, but said it was largely due to the timing of new activities, in particular the later than expected implementation of the Building Consent Authorities accreditation programme. During the year, considerable time was spent helping the Department of Building and Housing complete and explain new legislative requirements for Building Consent Authorities accreditation. By year end, 61 applications had been received, almost all from local authorities, and one certificate issued.

Dr Richards expects the financial results will be reversed in 2007-2008 with actual phasing of new accreditation activities.

Accreditation and conformity assessment sound
In the Standards and Conformance Infrastructure Review, completed by the Ministry of Economic Development in early 2007, it was found that New Zealand has a world class infrastructure that is fundamentally sound. Within this infrastructure, IANZ and Telarc SAI Limited successfully support the New Zealand economy through their respective accreditation and certification services.

IANZ is now involved in the initiative by the Ministry of Development to create a Regulatory Forum of policy and regulation makers, regulators, other government departments, and standards and conformance infrastructure bodies. Dr Llew Richards, IANZ Chief Executive, says this will only enhance our current efforts to improve the understanding of conformance assessment with these sectors of the economy.

In another initiative from the review, Ian Roy, IANZ Manager International Affairs and Government Liaison, is actively involved with the Ministry in establishing a web-based information clearing house. This will greatly help Ian deal with the dozens of trade enquiries he receives each week from mainly importers seeking information about testing products and obtaining test reports from their suppliers.

Staff increased
Six new accreditation assessor positions were established during 2006-2007 to cater for an increased volume of work in the medical testing programme, food inspection programme and Building Consent Authority accreditation. All but one position, in the medical programme, have been filled and new recruits are undergoing on-job training.

Full report available
The full annual report of the Council is available on www.ianz.govt.nz or a printed copy is available on request from IANZ – phone (09) 525 6655 or email info@ianz.govt.nz.

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Council’s Act amended

As signalled in last year’s annual report, the Testing Laboratory Registration Act 1972 was reprinted on 14 May 2007. Changes were made under Section 17C of the Acts and Regulations Publications Act 1989, which included both editorial changes to the format and style and the removal of sections now incorporated in the Crown Entities Act 2004. The functions of the Council were replaced with functions that are in line with present government requirements for standards and conformance. These include:

The Council is required to act independently of Government in carrying out its functions and exercising its statutory powers.

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IANZ accreditation explained

.pdf file

.pdf file

Those organisations accredited by IANZ know only too well how rigorous IANZ assessments are and the benefits it brings to their operations. But many others are unaware that the type of accreditation IANZ provides is prevalent in New Zealand and throughout the world, and providing effective assurance of technical competence in important areas of the economy. To make it easier for regulators, business people and the general public to understand and appreciate the value that accreditation provides, a brochure has just been published explaining IANZ accreditation.

Information provided helps the reader appreciate the scope of accreditation covering laboratories, inspection bodies and radiology services, and the authority under which IANZ acts. The criteria for accreditation are described, and examples of regulatory bodies that use IANZ accreditation to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements are given.
Copies of the brochure are freely available from IANZ, and accredited and other organisations are welcome to obtain a supply for distribution to staff, clients and suppliers.

A four-page briefing paper about IANZ accreditation for policy makers has also been produced and may be obtained free of charge from IANZ.

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Meeting client expectations

Knowing how we can improve the way assessments are planned, arranged, conducted and reported is the reason behind client telephone surveys being undertaken by IANZ. Recommencing this year, a small proportion of clients are chosen at random and phoned inviting feedback. Calls are timed to take place three to six months after an IANZ assessment.

The purpose of the survey is to discover whether IANZ meets the expectations of its clients. Already some improvements have been made as a result of the feedback received. An example is the need to improve access to forms by placing them on the website ready to download. This as now been done and may be found on www.ianz.govt.nz/publications2/forms.htm.

Another improvement suggested is that pre-assessment forms be partially completed by IANZ with information we already know about the organisation so that they will just need to be checked and any blanks filled in. This will eliminate a rather tedious part of the assessment and save time.

IANZ would like to thank all the laboratories who have already taken part in the survey and encourage those yet to receive a call to let us know where we can improve.

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Technical advice provided to trade negotiations

Recognition in China of New Zealand accredited laboratories will be greatly improved when the first New Zealand/China Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement is signed. Under the agreement, most electrical and electronic goods may be tested and certified in New Zealand to go straight on to the market in China. The control process for goods coming into New Zealand from China will also be strengthened.

IANZ Chief Executive, Dr Llew Richards, who has been a delegate at the discussions at the request of the Ministry of Economic Development, has provided technical advice on the recognition of testing such products in the regulated environment. IANZ and the China National Accreditation Services (CNAS) already have a mutual recognition arrangement in place where each party recognises test results from each others accredited laboratories. The level of recognition is now raised to a significantly new level with the formal obligation of both governments under this new Agreement.

Future negotiations are expected to include mutual recognition agreements for agricultural equipment and machinery and a wide range of other products.

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New Accreditation

In the three months since May, the following organisations were accredited by IANZ.

Laboratories
ESR (Institute of Environmental Science and Research Limited), Porirua
Investigation and Diagnostic Centre, Tamaki, Auckland
National Gas Limited, Palmerston North
Northern Gateway Alliance Laboratory, Orewa
Northland Regional Council, Whangarei
The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Limited, Palmerston North

Building Consent Authorities
Hurunui District Council, Amberley
Palmerston North City Council, Palmerston North
South Taranaki District Council, Hawera

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ILAC celebrates 30 years
International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC)

ILAC, the international cooperation of laboratory and inspection accreditation bodies, this year celebrates its 30th anniversary. One of the primary aims of ILAC is the removal of technical barriers to trade.

Imagine you are importing toys from another country. The toys have been tested in that country by a laboratory which says it meets international safety standards. But how do you convince your authorities that the tests –and results – are genuine?

That dilemma was a major impediment to international trade 30 years ago, but today, thanks to a handful of pioneers, things have changed for the better.

The ability of authorities to trust technical standards and procedures from different countries reaches an important milestone this year - with ILAC celebrating 30 years of helping the world's economies overcome technical barriers to trade.

ILAC’s evolution was prompted by the Tokyo round of international trade negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The outcome was the GATT Standards Code, an agreement between a number of the member states encouraging recognition of the equivalence of different standards, and the variety of testing and accreditation regimes.

ILAC’s Chair, Daniel Pierre said: “The first conference on International Laboratory Accreditation was convened in Copenhagen in 1977 by Mr Per Lund Thoft of the Ministry of Trade, Denmark with the support of Dr Howard Forman of the US Department of Commerce. Twenty countries from around the world, the EEC Commission and ISO accepted their invitation.”

The conference gave countries that already had or were planning accreditation schemes, an opportunity to compare notes and experiences. The delegations with practical experience were The National Testing Board of Denmark (1977), NVLAP US Department of Commerce (1976), BSI's System of the Registration of Test House, UK (1977) NATA - Australia (1947) and Telarc New Zealand (1973).

“The outcome of that first ILAC conference was the idea that mutual recognition agreements between accreditation bodies meant any laboratory anywhere could have their test results recognised as reliable. ILAC from its inception has worked to create an international framework to support international trade through the removal of technical barriers. This is now recognised through the ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA).

Fifty eight signatories, representing 46 economies have now signed the ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement, enhancing the acceptance of products and services across national borders,” Mr Pierre said.

The ILAC Arrangement came into effect on 31 January 2001 to provide significant technical underpinning to international trade. The key to the Arrangement is the developing global network of accredited testing and calibration laboratories that are assessed and recognised as being competent by ILAC Arrangement signatory accreditation bodies. The signatories have, in turn, been peer-reviewed and shown to meet the ILAC criteria for competence. Now that the ILAC Arrangement is in place, governments can take advantage of it to further develop or enhance trade agreements.

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NATA celebrates 60 years

This year, NATA, the Australian national accreditation authority, celebrates its sixtieth anniversary. Born of necessity in the Second World War, NATA led the world in establishing a laboratory approval scheme.

During the war, Australia was cut off from any means of ensuring the munitions it was manufacturing were of the standard demanded by modern weapons. In late 1945, a conference on the coordination of testing services was attended by representatives of all State and Federal governments. The conference led to the formation of the National Association of Testing Authorities a little more than a year later. The new association was to provide a national testing service to Australia and would span across all technical, industrial and geographical areas of the country.

The notion of ensuring testing standards were themselves subject to examination was then a novel one. Today, the pioneering work of NATA has led to the Testing Laboratory Registration Council of New Zealand and similar organisations being set up in all the world’s major economies.

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New NATA Chief Executive

After 35 years continuous service, with the last seven years at the helm, Tony Russell is retiring from NATA in November. His replacement as Chief Executive is Alan Patterson, a business consultant with more than 30 years experience in senior strategic and operational management roles.

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PEOPLE AT IANZ

New Council member
Dr Campbell Kyle, MBChB, MMedSc, DipObst, FRCPA, PhD (Utah) was appointed to the Testing Laboratory Registration Council on 3 September. Dr Kyle is Clinical Director, Biochemistry/Immunology, Diagnostic Medlab Limited, Auckland, In addition, Dr Kyle is Visiting Specialist, Departments of Diabetes and Endocrinology, Auckland Hospital and Honorary Senior Lecturer, Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Auckland. He is a director of DNA Diagnostics Limited and currently a member of the BPAC Laboratory Clinical Advisory Group (national body guiding best laboratory practice in primary care).

New Staff at IANZ
IANZ’s accreditation services have gone through a growth spurt in recent months with increased assessment workloads in inspection body and medical testing programmes. Appointments to new positions and to fill vacant positions have seen six new staff joining during July and August.

Adrienne Woollard
	Adrienne joined IANZ in August as an Accreditation Assessor in the Inspection Body programme. A graduate of Auckland University with a BSc in Biological Sciences, Adrienne has gained experience in food analysis (with MAF and AgriQuality), development and implementation of quality systems (Kraft Wiri and IFF) and technical, quality and site management (Kraft Vegemite factory).

Elizabeth Stevens
	Elizabeth will be remembered by a number of clients for her cheery assistance with accreditation administration matters for four years prior to leaving IANZ in 2003 to go back to university full-time. She has joined IANZ again, this time in the newly created position as Coordination Officer for the inspection body programme. Elizabeth has a Certificate in Applied Science from AUT University.

Jen Ferguson
	Jen joined the IANZ accreditation services administration team in June as Coordination Officer for the Medical and Radiology Programmes. She has a background as a Medical Laboratory Scientist, having specialised in Microbiology at Waikato Hospital in 1989 and has since worked in a wide range of medical laboratories in New Zealand and abroad.

Pam McQuoid

New to the corporate services administration team, Pam has an extensive background in social welfare work. Prior to joining IANZ, Pam was coordinator/manager of suicide prevention education with Living Works Education where her role was to lift the profile of the programme throughout government departments, military establishments and the private sector. She established the programme at the Waiouru Military Camp and with numerous social sector agencies, including CYF. Pam is a NZQA accredited telephone counsellor and holds a certificate of accreditation with the Gambling Helpline and certificate in crisis intervention from Community Alcohol and Drug Agency.

Ruth Porter

Ruth, who has a Science Degree from Otago University, has been appointed to a new food inspection assessment position in the IANZ inspection body programme. She started with IANZ in August after more than 3 ½ years with NZFSA Verification Agency where she was involved with the auditing of Risk Management Programmes (RMP) under the Animal Products Act. Her position of Travelling Technical Supervisor involved her becoming familiar with many different types of manufacturing processes where she ensured, firstly, that the RMP’s met the legislative requirements and, secondly, that the company was working to its RMP. Prior to this, Ruth was working with the Dairy Certification Unit of NZFSA in an office based verification role.

Shiva Sami

Shiva is the new Accreditation Assessor in the IANZ medical programme. He completed a BMLS degree from Massey University in 1999, a Masters of Science at Auckland University, gaining an MSc (Honours) in Biochemistry and Biological Sciences, in 2004 and has completed a Tertiary Teaching certificate from AUT. Shiva worked as a registered medical scientist at LabPlus (Auckland Hospital), in Chemical Pathology until 2004 when he worked in Cambridge and London as a senior biochemistry scientist at St Thomas, Charing Cross and Queen Elizabeth Hospital till 2006. He again worked for LabPlus prior to joining IANZ in September this year.

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IANZ Publications

New format
IANZ specific criteria, supplementary criteria and technical guides are progressively being converted from the original double column format to a single column to make these documents easier to read online. Those converted so far are:

• Biological Testing – AS LAB C 1, January 2007
• Dairy Testing – AS LAB C 9, June 2007 (available only online at present)
• NZFSA Laboratory Approved Scheme – AS LAB C 10, April 2007 (reprinted June 2007)

As each publication is re-formatted, it will be made available on www.ianz.govt.nz/publications. Where changes are made to the text, the publication will be reprinted and distributed to the relevant clients as well as being posted on the website.

Changes to ISBN number
A new series of ISBN numbers have been issued through the National Library of New Zealand. The new series, containing 13 digits instead of 11 previously, will be allocated to each IANZ publication as and when changes to the content or format are made after August this year.

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Articles of interest

Insider Job
By Denise Robitaille
Quality World, August 2007
Internal auditing is one of the elements that makes your QMS complete. This article gives a series of practices and tips that will help your organisation reap the benefits from its internal auditing programme.

Quality Basics
Quality Progress, June 2007
Describes the 10 basics of quality management - Basic principles and methods, measurement, tools, statistics, standards, vision and strategy, process management and process improvement, the economic case for quality, teamwork and empowerment, and leadership - with an explanation of what they are, how they can be used and why they are important.

Evolution of philosophy and description of measurement (preliminary rationale for VIM3)
By Charles Ehrlich, Rene Dybkaer and Wolfgang Woger
Accreditation and Quality Assurance, v12 n3/4 M/A 2007
This paper examines the evolution of common philosophies and ways of describing measurement. Some of the differences between these approaches are highlighted, which provides a rationale for the entries and structure of the Aug 2006 draft of VIM.

How does a laboratory monitor customer satisfaction?
Inside Laboratory Management, Jul/Aug 2007
A laboratory must seek customer feedback to achieve an accurate picture of customer satisfaction.

Photocopies of these articles are available on request from Rosemary Apperley, our IANZ Librarian free of charge. Email library@ianz.govt.nz or phone 09 525 6655 to obtain a copy. Please provide a mailing address as we are prevented by copyright from emailing them to you.

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Training courses remaining in 2007

The remaining training courses to be run by the New Zealand Quality College this year are listed below. All courses will be held in Auckland.

Details of all courses and booking forms are available from www.nzqc.co.nz, by phoning 0800 9000 99 or emailing info@nzqc.co.nz.

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To contact IANZ call 09 525 6655 or email info@ianz.govt.nz
Private Bag 28901, Remuera, Auckland 1541
626 Great South Road, Ellerslie 1051