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Certification Bodies

Certification Bodies: Carries out fishery and by-product assessments, facility audits, and certification activities

The MarinTrust Secretariat, on behalf of the Governing Body Committee (GBC), appoints independent third-party accredited Certification Bodies to carry out fishery and by-product assessment, auditing, and certification activities. The registered CB is the sole authority by which  Certificates of Compliance may be granted, suspended, or withdrawn.

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  • All Certification Bodies registered under MarinTrust programme are required to be accredited against ISO 17065, with the MarinTrust standards in scope of their accreditation.
  •  As part of the ISO 17065 accreditation, Certification Bodies have a legally enforceable agreement for the provision of certification activities to its clients and are held legally responsible for all its certification activities.  
  • The Certification Bodies currently registered under MarinTrust programme are NSF/Global Trust Certification Ltd, SGS del Peru and Acoura Marine Ltd (LRQA).
  • All registered accredited Certification Bodies are assigned a government-appointed Accreditation Body based on the location of its critical office. 

 

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Accreditation Bodies

Accreditation Bodies: Government assigned entities that accredit participating Certification Bodies

Accreditation Bodies are government assigned entities to the Certification Bodies and must be nationally recognised, either government owned or under agreement with government, and must be signatory members of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) Multilateral Recognition Agreement (MLA) or Recognised Regional Accreditation Groups.  

  • Accreditation Bodies accredit participating Certification Bodies by assessing them against 17065:2012 (Conformity Assessment - Requirements for Bodies Certifying Products, Processes and Services).
  • To ensure consistency of accreditation processes, Accreditation Bodies undergo peer evaluation against ISO/IEC 17011:2004 (Conformity Assessment - General Requirements for Accreditation Bodies Accrediting Conformity Assessment Bodies).
  • Accreditation Bodies currently engaged in the programme include Insituto Nacional de Calidad (INACAL) and Irish National Accreditation Board (INAB).

 

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IAF

International Accreditation Forum – Multinational Recognition Arrangement

The International Accreditation Forum (IAF) is the international association of accreditation bodies and other bodies interested in conformity assessment in the fields of management systems, products, processes, services, personnel, validation and verification and other similar programmes of conformity assessment, with the main objective of providing a globally recognised programme for the conformity assessment to provide assurance of the credibility and integrity of the accreditation granted by participant Accreditation Bodies. [1]

The IAF Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) allows mutual recognition of accredited certification between signatories of the MLA across the marketplace, helping to reduce costs and add value to businesses and consumer. [2]

 

[1] Source https://iaf.nu/en/about/

[2] Source https://iaf.nu/en/mla-purpose/