Slovak national accreditation service

The conformity assessment bodies are calibration, testing and medical laboratories, inspection authorities, proficiency test organizers, certification authorities for certification of products, management systems and persons, environmental verifiers and green-house gas emissions verifiers. The assessors and experts play a decisive role in this area. The effectiveness and trustworthiness of an accreditation body depends on proficiency, professionalism and independence of its assessors and experts and on an effective system for their qualifications improvement, monitoring their performance and proficiency and on their evaluation.

This document determines SNAS policy on accreditation of laboratories.

This document determines SNAS Policy for Accreditation of Flexible Scope.

This methodological guideline for accreditation stipulates the rights, obligations and responsibilities of the Slovak National Accreditation Service and accredited Conformity Assessment Bodies. MSA applies binding international documents.

The Policy and Procedure of SNAS for the Assessment of Laboratories According to the Requirements of the Standard ISO 15189: 2022. This regulation determines the policy and procedure of SNAS in the transition to the accreditation of laboratories according to the requirements of the reviewed standard ISO 15189: 2022 published in December 2022.

This methodical guideline regulates the procedure for supervision of environmental verifiers (hereinafter, EV) according to ISO/IEC 17021-1: 2015 and Regulation (EC) No 1221/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council (hereinafter, Regulation), amended by Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/1505 and Commission Regulation (EU) 2018/2026. This methodical guideline is obligatory for employees of the accreditation body, applicants for accreditation and environmental verifiers active in Slovak Republic.

This methodical guideline discloses requirements for environmental verifiers (hereinafter, EV) according to ISO/IEC 17021-1: 2015 and Regulation (EC) No 1221/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council (hereinafter, Regulation), amended by Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/1505 and Commission Regulation (EU) 2018/2026. This methodical guideline is obligatory for employees of the accreditation body and applicants for accreditation.

This document determines SNAS policy on quality and impartiality.

Slovak national accreditation service is the public institution and manages its assets on a non-profit basis.

The revision of the SNAS service price list (hereinafter referred to as the "price list") responds to the situation when the inflation rate in Slovakia reaches double-digit values for the second year in a row, which also results in a significant increase in the costs of the accreditation system in the Slovak Republic and the costs of intermediary services. The hourly rate stated in the previous price list was introduced in 2019. From 2019 to 2024, cumulative inflation will reach (according to the current IFP MF SR forecast) almost 35%. Over the same period, the increase in the average wage in the national economy will reach 42%.

The authorities of the Slovak National Accreditation Service dealt with the situation, the supervisory board at its meeting deliberated the principles of determining the amount of payment for the services provided by the Slovak National Accreditation Service and the proposal for a new price list, and it was decided to adjust the price list so that in the next periods balanced economy will be achieved in accordance with the Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Act no. 53/2023 Coll. on the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies. The most significant modification of the price list concerns the change of the hourly rate from € 49 to € 61. Based on this change, the basic rates for accreditation, reaccreditation, surveillance for individual areas of accreditation were recalculated. The annual fee for maintaining accreditation remains unchanged.

Other changes of the price list include:

• Addition of new accreditation schemes:

- Attestation / verification of the fulfilment of notification/authorization requirements in accordance with Act 146/2023 Coll. on air protection and amendments to some laws

- Management system of contractors of special constructions

- Sector-specific schemes in the field of greenhouse gas verifiers

• Changing the method of calculating the payment for the extension of accreditation - according to the time required for assessment
• Harmonization of terminology with the Act on Accreditation
• Other minor amendments (e.g. specification of costs for cross-border accreditation, supplementary assessment of requirements according to a different standard, ...).