What makes UKAS accredited asbestos service different?

When you work in a UKAS accredited asbestos testing (laboratory and air monitoring) and asbestos inspection (surveying) environment it's easy to assume that everyone understands and values UKAS. However, not everyone is aware of what UKAS are or how UKAS accreditation improves the product they are buying.

What is UKAS?
Whenever we are buying a good or service, especially one we're not familiar with, we want to know that what we are buying is good quality. But what guarantees do we have? Who checks? The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) was set up to be the sole national accreditation body recognised by government to demonstrate the competence and capabilities of UKAS accredited services. UKAS are impartial, non-profit making and assess organisations against independent standards ensuring those companies that display UKAS accreditation have the people, facilities, technical expertise and management systems to undertake the activity professionally and competently.

Ensuring Technical Competence
Asbestos surveying is technically demanding, so how do you ensure that the asbestos surveyor you choose has the skills and experience to deliver a competent survey? Arguably the most important reassurance that a UKAS accredited asbestos surveyor offers is confidence. If that surveyor is approved and working under a UKAS accreditation they have demonstrated that they have the knowledge, skills and experience to deliver a technically competent asbestos survey. In short, the customer has an authoritative, independent declaration of their competence. To deliver a survey under a UKAS accreditation the customer can be reassured that the surveyor's competence is continually audited and independently assessed and that the surveyor cares enough about the quality of their work to want to work under a UKAS system.

Quality and Value
UKAS accreditation doesn't come for free. In fact maintaining a UKAS accreditation is a significant investment of money, time and resources. However this shouldn't be considered as a negative when choosing an asbestos surveyor. As a customer why not ask yourself do I want a surveyor who cares about the quality of their product or not? Do I want a company who cares enough about quality that they'll invest in UKAS accreditation to prove to me that they can deliver what I want? This doesn't mean that a UKAS accredited company is expensive. Far from it, using a UKAS accredited company won't usually cost much more but yields huge additional benefits. Our advice is that if you want to know that you are buying a quality service, delivered with confidence by knowledgeable and experienced asbestos surveyors then only choose UKAS accredited companies.

What makes UKAS accredited asbestos service different?

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