CQP Advanced Level
Quality Infrastructure and Legal Framework glossary
Every term this guide defines, A to Z, each with the chapter that teaches it. Open it when a word in a question is unfamiliar, and test yourself on it in the last week: cover the definition and say it in one sentence.
8 terms from the free first chapter
C
- Conformity assessment bodies
Testing and calibration laboratories, inspection bodies and certification bodies, both public and private. In a mature infrastructure most of these are private and the state's role is to accredit rather than to perform.
Taught in Introduction to quality infrastructure
I
- Industry, professional and consumer bodies
Manufacturers' associations, professional institutes and consumer organisations, which participate in standards development and, in the consumer case, provide the demand-side pressure that makes enforcement politically sustainable.
Taught in Introduction to quality infrastructure
M
- Ministries and policy bodies
Responsible for national quality policy, for the legal framework, and for the country's positions in trade negotiations and in regional harmonisation.
Taught in Introduction to quality infrastructure
R
- Regional and international bodies
The East African Community's standardisation, quality assurance, metrology and testing framework; the African Organisation for Standardisation; ISO, IEC and Codex internationally; and the WTO, which sets the disciplines within which national technical regulation must operate.
Taught in Introduction to quality infrastructure
S
- Sector regulators
Bodies with technical regulatory authority in their sectors: among others the plant health inspectorate, the veterinary services, the pharmacy and poisons regulator, the environmental authority, the energy and petroleum regulator, the communications authority, and the public health authorities.
Taught in Introduction to quality infrastructure
T
- The national accreditation body
In Kenya, the Kenya Accreditation Service. It accredits testing and calibration laboratories, medical laboratories, inspection bodies, certification bodies and proficiency testing providers, against the relevant international standards, and holds international recognition through the ILAC and IAF arrangements.
Taught in Introduction to quality infrastructure
- The national metrology institute and legal metrology service
Maintains the national measurement standards and their traceability to the international system of units, provides calibration services, and administers legal metrology, meaning the control of measuring instruments used in trade, health, safety and enforcement.
Taught in Introduction to quality infrastructure
- The national standards body
In Kenya, the Kenya Bureau of Standards, established under the Standards Act (Cap 496). It develops and publishes Kenya Standards, represents Kenya in international and regional standardisation, operates certification and testing services, and administers the standardisation mark and import conformity arrangements.
Taught in Introduction to quality infrastructure
The full glossary adds every term from the other 8 chapters, A to Z, each with the chapter that teaches it.