Supporting a system of standards and conformance

Accreditation is a tool that regulators and policy makers can use as part of regulatory design. Wherever regulations require competent testing or inspection, accreditation is an 'off-the-shelf' solution that can provide you with the assurance you require.

Accreditation is an internationally tried and tested means of ensuring that critical tests and inspections are reliable and meet regulatory requirements.

IANZ's Role

Safeguarding our health, our environment and our economy requires appropriate regulations - and people committed to making them work effectively.

IANZ works closely with many Government departments to support regulation. We then partner with laboratories, inspection bodies, building consent authorities and medical imaging providers around New Zealand to ensure they are meeting relevant regulations or standards through accreditation.

Our accreditation assessors are highly qualified and experienced individuals who typically have worked in the industry they are assessing. We also engage technical experts from industry to support us on particular assessments.

During an accreditation assessment, our assessors are checking that an organisation's people, processes, procedures, equipment and service meet international competence standards. When they can demonstrate this, they are granted accreditation and can use the IANZ accreditation symbol on their reports and certificates.

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Safeguarding our economy

IANZ also works alongside Government agencies, like New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, to develop international trading opportunities for New Zealand exporters. We do this by providing technical advice on policy and standard as well as liaising with other accreditation bodies (like us) around the world.

It's also an important part of our role to ensure that when the world thinks of New Zealand products, they think quality. By ensuring that what we make for export is assessed and certified by organisations accredited to international standards of competence, we're protecting our global export reputation. When another country sees a product has been certified by an organisation with IANZ accreditation, they can have confidence in results that are world class.

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Proactive, not reactive

IANZ prefers to work with regulators at the regulatory design stage to ensure effective integration of the accreditation process into new regulations.

Accreditation involves no direct cost to regulators. As an independent, not-for-profit service, IANZ keeps costs to affected industries and their clients to a minimum while maximising confidence in regulatory outcomes. And because we work every day across multiple sectors and industries, we have a wealth of knowledge to share with regulators around risk management.

How does IANZ work with regulators?

IANZ supports Government and regulators by:

‍Enhancing safety

- Developing new accreditation programmes to protect more spheres of life

- Growing the number of companies and organisations accredited each year

- Increasing the numbers of people trained by IANZ Training Services - our training arm

Enabling trade

- Improving global trade links by supporting access to export markets, and

- Strengthening New Zealand's trade links by maintaining and enhancing global links through the Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (APAC) and ILAC

- Growing export revenue for New Zealand by helping regulators (in particular, MPI)

- Ensuring new Zealand exporters meet overseas market access requirements

Partnering with customers and regulators

- Delivering high quality accreditation that adds value to the New Zealand economy

Improving awareness and productivity of IANZ

- Growing awareness and understanding of IANZ

- Creating an increasingly capable workforce

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To discuss how IANZ can partner with you, please contact an IANZ Operations Manager:

Anne Hofstra - laboratory testing accreditation

Sharon Thomas - healthcare sector accreditation

Melinda Sampson - inspection accreditation

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Telling our story - and yours!

Another important part of our job at IANZ is to remind Kiwis that we exist and why we matter. If we don't, they may not know that they're protected by accreditation and regulation. They might not realise that they have a right to expect quality. And they won't know which organisations and regulators partner with us to ensure their well being.

Work with us

It's a big job. And we can't do it alone. We need our partners. And we need a proactive regulatory environment that looks forward, not backward, to mitigate future risk. One thing we can be sure of is that, if we all work together to protect the health and wealth of New Zealand, this will continue to be a great place to live for a long time to come.

Our statutory documents

Each year, IANZ produces a number of statutory documents. To read our latest publications, please click on the links below.

Statement of Performance Expectations

Statement of Intent

Annual Reports