Published: 25.05.2021.

Latvian National accreditation system is established in the law “On Conformity Assessment”, section 13.

  1. The Cabinet of Ministers establishes a unified, national accreditation system, which conforms to the international requirements. Its objective is to determine accreditation procedures and observance of unified management principles. 
  2. Ministry of Economics implements state policy in the field of accreditation and ensures operations of national accreditation system. 
  3. Latvian National Accreditation Council participates in development of state policy in the field of accreditation, promotes cooperation with international accreditation organizations, as well as provides consulting to conformity  assessment bodies on issues of the regulated and non-regulated area. Latvian National Accreditation Council is an advisory body. Regulations and personnel of this Council at the recommendation of the Minister o Economic are approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. 
  4. Accreditation of conformity assessment bodies in the regulated and non-regulated area, as well as operations of conformity assessment bodies are performed by the national accreditation body. 
  5. National accreditation body is entitled to form technical committees of branches in order to receive consulting for solution of particular technical issues in the respective area.

The key anchor of operations of the accreditation system is the branch specialists, which are involved in assessments of conformity assessment bodies

Latvian National Accreditation Council is an advisory body for accreditation of laboratories, certification and inspection bodies, environment verifiers (EMAS), SEG verifiers in the regulated and non-regulated area. It participates in development of state policy in the field of accreditation and facilitates cooperation with the international accreditation organizations. Bylaws of this Council are approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Republic of Latvia. 

The Council consists of representatives from the following interested parties: 

Ministries, national quality infrastructure bodies, conformity assessment bodies; professional non-governmental organizations in the field of conformity assessment; consumers’ rights protection organization.

The Accreditation Branch Technical Committees (ABTC) provide expert consultation to the Latvian National Accreditation Bureau (LATAK) on technical matters across various accreditation scopes. They participate in the development of LATAK documents, the translation of European co-operation for Accreditation (EA) documents, and the training of assessors and technical experts.

The branch technical committees operate in accordance with the Regulations of the Technical Committees and comprise specialists from the respective professional fields together with representatives of LATAK.

Each committee’s work is coordinated by a Chairperson, elected from among its members, supported by Deputy Chairpersons and/or Section Heads. Liaison between LATAK and the committees is maintained by a person appointed by LATAK. Members of LATAK management take part in committee meetings, while recordkeeping for each branch committee is ensured by a designated LATAK representative.

The following branch technical committees are currently active:

  • Accreditation of Proficiency Test Organizers ABTC;

  • Medical Equipment Inspection ABTC;

  • The Field of Enterprise Energy Audits ABTC;

  • The Field of Geodesy, Land Cadastral Surveying and Land Management ABTC.