Which international standards are relevant

There are a number of international standards and guidelines for the operation of proficiency tests. An overview:

• ISO/IEC Guide 43:1997 - Proficiency testing by interlaboratory comparisons is, at present, the major international guideline for the operation of proficiency tests. Part 1 defines the quality requirements for the development and operation of proficiency testing schemes. Part 2 elaborates on the selection and use of proficiency testing schemes by laboratory accreditation bodies.

   

• ILAC Guide 13:2007 - Guidelines for the requirements for the competence of providers of proficiency testing schemes. These guidelines are based on the technical elements of ISO/IEC Guide 43-1:1997 and on the relevant elements of the laboratory competence standard ISO/IEC 17025:2005, including the management system requirements and the technical requirements for the characterisation, homogeneity and stability testing of PT test items. Relevant clauses of ISO 9000:2005 are included to eliminate the need for separate recognition of a provider's quality management system.
  Although they do not have the status of an international standard, the ISO/IEC and the ILAC guides are used for the accreditation of PT providers. To set common criteria for the evaluation of the competence of PT providers, the ISO/IEC guide is currently being revised and upgraded to become ISO/IEC 17043 – General requirements for proficiency testing. The ILAC Guide 13 was used as one of the base documents for this revision and as such will be withdrawn when the standard is published.

   

• ISO 13528:2005 - Statistical methods for use in proficiency testing by interlaboratory comparisons sets out how the assigned value and performance assessment criteria can be established and describes the options for the various scoring systems .

   

• The harmonised protocol for the proficiency testing of analytical chemistry laboratories is a technical report issued by IUPAC. It provides a practical and detailed protocol that addresses many of the issues of the above mentioned documents.