Get 2 Documentation Toolkits for the price of 1
Limited-time offer – ends March 28, 2024

Expert Advice Community

Guest

Test Report Validity

  Quote
Guest
Guest user Created:   Mar 01, 2021 Last commented:   Mar 01, 2021

Test Report Validity

Need help in validity of any test report [from date of issue]. Is there any standard practice to be followed for considering the validity of the Test Report?

As i have not seen any test report mentioning Validity. What should a certification body consider if the historical test report submitted by the client is more than 5 to 8 years?

1 0

Assign topic to the user

ISO 17025 DOCUMENTATION TOOLKIT

Step-by-step implementation for smaller companies.

ISO 17025 DOCUMENTATION TOOLKIT

Step-by-step implementation for smaller companies.

Expert
Tracey Evans Mar 01, 2021

You asked

"Need help in validity of any test report [from date of issue]. Is there any standard practice to be followed for considering the validity of the Test Report?

The validity is about the results rather than the test report itself. ISO 17025 has requirements regarding the approval of results and content of the actually test report, as specified in clause 7.8 Reporting of result. This means the report must be compliant (meet requirements). The actual results (content of the test report) needs to be valid. The requirement regarding ensuring the validity of results is covered in clause 7.7; which together with the other requirements of ISO 17025 assures clients and the accreditation body of the laboratory’s competence to produce suitably reliable results – i.e. consistent, valid results.

The standard practice is to have internal (clause 7.7.1) and external (clause 7.7.2) quality control checks. Internally this would involve, for example the use of various blanks (e.g. reagent and sample blanks), running certified reference or quality control materials with each batch of test samples or after very say 10th sample; depending on the stability of the method. External Quality Control involves participation in proficiency testing or interlaboratory comparisons to compare performance with other laboratories. This is to control the risk of a bias.

You also asked

“What should a certification body consider if the historical test report submitted by the client is more than 5 to 8 years?"

The relevant issue is the test reports issued to clients by an accredited laboratory. The accreditation body, when auditing a laboratory for compliance for accreditation, would need to assess recent reports, typically not older than 3 months.

For more information on what is required for ISO 17025, read the whitepaper Clause-by-clause explanation of ISO 17025:2017 available for download from https://advisera.com/17025academy/free-downloads/ and preview the toolkit at https://advisera.com/17025academy/iso-17025-documentation-toolkit/ which cludes the Quality Assurance Procedure.  The procedure is also available separately at https://advisera.com/17025academy/documentation/quality-assurance-procedure/

Quote
0 0

Comment as guest or Sign in

HTML tags are not allowed

Mar 01, 2021

Mar 01, 2021

Suggested Topics

Guest user Created:   Feb 07, 2022 ISO 17025
Replies: 1
0 0

Reporting

Guest user Created:   Nov 02, 2022 ISO 17025
Replies: 1
0 0

Customer audits - 17025 requirement?