Accreditation decisively contributes to efficient protection of public interests (e.g. health, safety, consumer protection and environmental protection) and market surveillance whilst reducing barriers to free movement of goods and services. Through promoting higher standards of quality, through consistent, transparent and integral control of technical requirements, it adds credibility to the bodies whose task is to assess compliance with applicable requirements. Providing an official and independent statement of the CAB’s technical competence is a special advantage of accreditation. Along with this, the use of accreditation brings a whole range of other welcome benefits and advantages.

For the wider social community, industry and end-users

• In a complex global market, accreditation inspires trust in the consumers by its independent and impartial way of verifying compliance with requirements, and contributes significantly to ensuring high quality standards of products and services.
• Accreditation is an important tool in decision-making and risk management. By using accredited services, organisations provide themselves with a credible basis for making time- and money-saving decisions.
• Accreditation also provides efficient support to international business, as it enables faster and less cost-burdened placing of products on international markets (for the time being, this applies in particular to the EU), which enhances the competitiveness of the economy. Actually, one of the more important goals of accreditation is to carry out testing or certification only once and have the results globally accepted.
• Precise measurements, tests and calibrations, conducted in accordance with best practices, lower the probability error, enable better control of production costs and provide an innovative environment.

For direct users (accredited CABs)

• Through accreditation, a CAB demonstrates its competence and builds the customers’ confidence in the results obtained within the scope of accredited activity.
• In a number of cases accreditation is stated as a prerequisite for obtaining assignment or authorisation to work in the regulated sector. More and more often it also means a competitive advantage, as the clients are deciding themselves to use accredited services, the degree of certainty to obtain quality services and reliable results being so much higher.
• An efficient management system, which is one of the conditions for obtaining accreditation, can also help an organisation to meet other objectives (it can use it with benefit to raise quality, or in other areas).
• Special value of accreditation lies in verified competence, which is confirmed through confidential assessment by experienced and independent experts. To accredited organisations it brings a “view from the outside”, allows them to compare with best practices in their respective technical fields, and helps them to improve their performance.
• An independent assessment will lower the probability of inadequate service, incorrect results and poor internal performance, and as a result, lower the possibility of damage that inadequate work may cause to the reputation of the organisation.

For ministries, administrative and executive bodies

• Accreditation is used as a mechanism for assuring public trust in activities, primarily those that affect health, safety and the environment. It is a proven and transparent method of verifying the overall competence of an organisation and its ability to comply with regulations.
• The accreditation system follows the binding rules, which are the same for everyone. Among the EU Member States it contributes to the enhancement of mutual trust in the competencies of CABs, and as a result, in test reports and certificates issued by these CABs.
• Accreditation plays a crucial role in the appointment and notification process. It provides the infrastructure for verifying the competencies of notified CABs, so that the ministries and other administrative bodies need not establish their own systems for that purpose. In this context, also their need for additional employment or outsourcing technical staff is diminished.
• Accreditation is a tool enabling government services to create efficient regulation and verification systems, and to avoid unnecessary economic restrictions.
• Accreditation infrastructure provides a ‘passport to international trade’, by which it promotes competitiveness of the national economy.