The quality infrastructure - roles of the different bodies

The quality infrastructure provides the underpinnings that enable UK businesses to compete nationally and internationally, meet customer requirements and manage risk.

Introduction

UK businesses need to:

create and enter markets in a timely manner
meet customer requirements, including legislative requirements
manage risks, including risks to financial investment, product introductions, market exclusion, etc.

Underpinning these activities is the need to demonstrate conformance to standards (whether specified by regulators, the market or the industry) in order to gain market access and gain market confidence in their products and services.

The 'quality infrastructure' supports these aims and comprises the physical facilities and the interrelated systems of organizations, structures and people that help organizations to implement quality practices and improve performance.

The principle parts of the infrastructure relate to:

regulation - government, regulators
standards - documentary, physical/ reference, other codified intellectual property
conformity assessment and accreditation
economic operators and their collective representatives
consumers

Overview

The UK quality infrastructure is concerned with the relationships between:

legal requirements contained in regulation and legislation
voluntary standards which define the quality of products and services and the methods of their production
industry practice and the actual solutions provided by business
the market, where the confidence and will to trade is promoted
the accreditation and conformity assessment regimes that provide the evidence and confidence

The UK quality infrastructure is principally made up of a number of separate bodies, each with separate remits but which impact the following:

Market access and international trade - facilitating the removal of technical barriers to trade, evolving common language and practices that promote trade and gaining access to overseas markets
Industrial policy - enabling the UK to take advantage of its strong science base and capacity for innovation to compete in global markets
Regulation - either supporting regulation where there are significant risks to health, safety or the environment, or through market self-regulation
Providing confidence, evidence, information and assurance to purchasers, suppliers and customers regarding the quality of products, services or their supply.
Promoting awareness of and providing training and assistance in quality tools, methods, practices and culture.

The following diagram shows some of the primary interfaces in the UK quality infrastructure. Bodies shown in black are sponsored by Government and receive some funding for their activities. Bodies shown in blue are self-funded and independent of Government. (Note: The British Standards Institution is an exception, in that the BSI Group comprises the UK's National Standards Body - BSI British Standards, which does receive funding, also a certification body - BSI Management Systems and a testing operation - BSI Product Services).

Diagram shows the interrelationship between the various bodies
Figure 1: The UK quality infrastructure

Roles of the different bodies

Regulation - Government and Regulatory bodies

Government, principally through the Department of Trade and Industry, has a key role in providing consumers and business with the support and mechanisms to encourage trade and competitiveness and ensure that the public good is maintained, e.g. through regulation and provision of fair markets.

Government is directly responsible for maintaining elements of the quality infrastructure, as illustrated. Ensuring effective working of the infrastructure by government is particularly important, since many of the activities concerned are 'pre-competitive' and would not be supported by individual business contribution.

The role of regulators, who are ultimately responsible to Parliament, is to regulate business decisions and promote the public good. Regulation can be divided into three areas:

economic - aimed at controlling the abuse of monopoly power
public goods and external effects - such as environmental and safety regulation
social - such as pensions and benefits

Regulators, according to the Better Regulation Task Force (now the Better Regulation Executive), seek to change the behaviour of groups or individuals by giving people rights (e.g. equal opportunities) or by restricting behaviour (e.g. compulsory seat belts).

Standards - documentary, physical/ reference, other codified intellectual property

Standards are at the hub of the quality infrastructure, facilitating the other areas by:

supporting or replacing regulations
providing the basis for trade policy negotiations, leading to mutual acceptance and recognition of accreditation, certification and audit or test results
giving weight to individual firms' design specification activities, including their intellectual property rights

The key bodies in this area are:

National Standards Body (BSI British Standards)

BSI is an independent non profit distributing body, accountable to government for operating under its Royal Charter. BSI works with representatives of business, government and consumers to facilitate the production of documentary standards. Standards Development will contain details about this activity (link).
As the UK's national standards body, BSI represents UK interests in formal European and international standards developing organizations and through their committees.
BSI also works internationally with other countries and their standards bodies, providing Technical Assistance, for example. This activity complements government's activity to promote UK products and processes overseas.

National Measurement System (NMS)

The NMS is the UK's national infrastructure of measurement laboratories, measurement science and technology and traceable standards of measurement for use in trade, industry, academia and government.

The majority of work is carried out through UK measurement institutes, primarily National Physical Laboratory (physical metrology), National Weights and Measures Laboratory (legal metrology), LGC Limited (chemical and biological metrology), TUV NEL Limited (Flow metrology)
The institutes support industries quality objectives in many ways, including:
- research and development of primary standards for new applications
- international inter-comparisons and acceptance of UK standards and methods
- measurement services and joint projects with industry
- technical helpline, best practice guides, consultancy, training, workshops, etc.

UK Patent Office

Reference to The Patent Office is included here for completeness since quality criteria or good practice may be held within a protected intellectual property regime. Where an organization is able to protect its Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), it may choose to do this as an alternative to or in tandem with standards. A useful guide on this subject is 'Standards and Intellectual Property Rights: A Practical Guide for Innovative Business (M Clarke, 2004, BSI)

Conformity Assessment and Accreditation

Manufacturers and suppliers employ conformity assessment bodies to help them provide assurance to purchasers or customers that the quality of their products or services meets specified requirements.

Certification bodies in particular help businesses demonstrate that their products, processes, systems or persons conform to defined standards, including customer's requirements.

Conformity assessment bodies fall into two categories (ISO/IEC 17000):

those concerned with assessment, e.g. testing laboratories or inspection bodies
those concerned with third-party attestation (i.e. assurance that specified requirements are fulfilled) of product conformity, management systems conformity or fulfilment of requirements for personal competence - known collectively as certification bodies

Accreditation by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) demonstrates the competence, impartiality and performance of a conformity assessment body to provide certification, testing, inspection or calibration services to internationally agreed standards.

UKAS is recognised by government as the sole UK body for the accreditation of certification, testing and inspection bodies to specified standards.

A listing of accredited certification bodies and their registered companies the United Kingdom Register of Quality Assessed Companies is published by the Stationery Office. QA Register website The QA Register website is also the place to check whether or not a company has ISO 9001 certification.

Business and its representatives

Business and its customers ultimately bear the cost of standards development, conformity assessment (certification, tests, audits) and attestation (mandatory marking, 'quality marks', licenses, etc.).

Through standards they are able to gain production efficiencies, operate in industry supply chains and differentiate their products. Licensing their own technologies, particularly when linked to accepted standards, can also be a considerable source of revenue.

Trade associations and professional bodies collectively represent the interests of their industry/business members in sector or specialised functional areas, they:

participate in the affairs and policy-making mechanisms of the other bodies in the quality infrastructure, thus ensuring that their sector or specialist areas' needs and good practices are brought to the attention of other fora.
play an important role in the consensus-making process, e.g. standards development, where they may have committees or other mechanisms dedicated to the task. For example, the CQO has many such groups ranging through standards development, professional development, medical devices quality, etc.

Informal standards developers work is often driven by commercial considerations. Their outputs define many products, services and even technical infrastructure found in everyday use by consumers, e.g. the internet, DVDs, etc. Some of the standards, relevant to the quality practitioner, defined by informal mechanisms, gain considerable acceptance, e.g. Investors in People.

Consultants (i.e. external consultants) are usually employed by organizations when a particular set of skills is required and they do not have the resources or expertise to address a situation by themselves.

Consultants specialise and help their clients in many areas, including:

strategic planning - defining vision and direction
management disciplines, e.g. marketing and finance
training and people development
quality-related disciplines, e.g. process reengineering, management systems, etc.
areas of the quality infrastructure, e.g. standardization, certification, regulatory and voluntary compliance

The CQI holds a register of management system consultants with a variety of discipline skills and sector experience - link