ISO/IEC 17025:2017
Definition
The international standard specifying general requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. Covers management (document control, non-conforming work, audits) and technical requirements (method validation, equipment calibration, measurement uncertainty, personnel competence). Accreditation under ISO 17025 by an ILAC-MRA signatory body is the quality baseline for forensic drug chemistry laboratories worldwide.
- Published by
- ISO and IEC jointly
- Type
- International accreditation standard
- Current edition
- November 2017
- Governs
- Testing and calibration laboratory competence
- Indian adoption
- IS/ISO/IEC 17025, published by BIS; accreditation via NABL
Common questions
What is ISO/IEC 17025:2017?+
It is the international standard that sets the general requirements for the competence, impartiality, and consistent operation of testing and calibration laboratories. It is published jointly by the International Organisation for Standardisation and the International Electrotechnical Commission. Forensic laboratories around the world use it as the baseline document for accreditation.
Why does ISO/IEC 17025 matter for forensic labs?+
Accreditation under this standard is the quality benchmark for forensic work in every major jurisdiction. It covers method validation, measurement uncertainty, equipment calibration, personnel competence, and document control. When a lab is accredited against it by an ILAC MRA signatory body, courts and clients can trust that its procedures have been independently verified.
What changed in the 2017 revision?+
The 2017 edition replaced the 2005 version and introduced risk-based thinking along with a stronger process approach. These additions align the standard more closely with modern quality management thinking while keeping the core technical requirements for testing and calibration laboratories.
Related terms
- Proficiency Testing (PT)
- A quality assurance mechanism in which laboratories analyse blind samples distributed by an external scheme coordinator and have their results compared against...
- NABL
- National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories, a constituent board of the Quality Council of India. It is the sole accrediting...
- ANAB
- The American National Standards Institute National Accreditation Board, formed after the merger of ASCLD-LAB with ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board in 2016. Now...
- Measurement Uncertainty (MU)
- A quantified parameter associated with a result that characterises the dispersion of values reasonably attributable to the measurand. Estimated by the GUM...
- NABL T-126
- Technical Requirement T-126 issued by India's National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories: the discipline-specific criteria for forensic science laboratories, covering...
- Quality Assurance (QA)
- The management system that ensures QC actually happens and stays effective over time: written SOPs, training and competence records, internal audits, document...
- Quality Control (QC)
- The day-to-day activities that verify a single batch of results is reliable: method blanks, certified-reference-material runs, duplicate injections, spike recoveries and control-chart...
- SWGDRUG
- Scientific Working Group for the Analysis of Seized Drugs, established in 1997 by the US DEA and the Office of National Drug...
- UKAS
- United Kingdom Accreditation Service; the sole national accreditation body for the UK and ILAC MRA signatory. Accredits forensic science providers under ISO/IEC...
- ABFA Diplomate
- The American Board of Forensic Anthropology's practitioner certification, requiring a doctoral degree, three or more years of forensic casework, a reviewed case...
- Accreditation
- Formal recognition by a standards body (such as UKAS in the UK, A2LA in the US, or NABL in India) that a...
- ACE-V Validation
- The documented process of demonstrating that a laboratory's local implementation of the Analysis, Comparison, Evaluation, Verification methodology produces reliable results across the...
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