PLANREFERENCE OUTLINE

ISO/IEC 17025 Accreditation Scope Plan

Accreditation plan built around the fact that competence is recognised method by method and matrix by matrix, never for a laboratory in general. Covers the applied-for scope, impartiality risks and their mitigation, method validation with measurement uncertainty, metrological traceability, proficiency testing with outliers investigated to a cause, and scope maintenance so a new method is never offered as accredited before the extension is granted. Maps to ISO/IEC 17025:2017.

What a template is not

A template is a document baseline to adapt inside your own quality system. SPEQ does not approve, validate, or take responsibility for what you issue from it, and using one is not evidence of compliance.

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REGULATIONS MAPPED
ISO/IEC 17025:2017
DOCUMENT TYPE
Plan
LAST UPDATED
August 2026
PURPOSE

Accreditation to the testing and calibration competence standard is granted against a defined scope, method by method and matrix by matrix. A laboratory is not accredited in general, and the schedule attached to the certificate is what says what was actually assessed. The most expensive failure is offering a new method as accredited before the extension is granted — a claim that is wrong however current the certificate looks.

What's Inside

✓Applied-for scope set out by test, matrix, method and measuring range rather than by general capability
✓Impartiality risks identified, each with the specific action that eliminates or minimises it
✓Competence recorded per role and authorised per method, so authority and capability are not confused
✓Method validation evidence with measurement uncertainty estimated for each quantity the laboratory reports to a customer
✓Metrological traceability chains and calibration intervals, with the basis for each interval recorded
✓Proficiency testing participation mapped to the scope, with every outlier investigated to a cause
✓Scope maintenance process, so nothing is offered as accredited before the extension is granted

How to Use It

1Build the applied-for scope from what you can evidence today, not from what the laboratory intends to offer next year.
2Describe the laboratory to customers by reference to its schedule, never as accredited without qualification — the schedule is the claim.
3Estimate measurement uncertainty for every reported quantity; without it a result cannot support a decision at a specification limit.
4Name the specific mitigation for each impartiality risk, because a risk listed without an action reads as a risk accepted.
5Investigate a proficiency-testing outlier to a cause; filing it as a data point buys a subscription rather than a control.
6Extend the scope before offering a new method as accredited, or it is offered outside accreditation whatever the certificate says.
DOCUMENT CONTENTS

The full section structure of this template — every section and sub-section, so you can use it as a baseline for your own site document.

—Document Control
› Document Information› Approval Signatures› Revision History› Distribution List
1Scope — What Accreditation Actually Covers
2Impartiality and Competence
3Method Validation and Measurement Uncertainty
4Metrological Traceability
5Proficiency Testing
6Scope Maintenance and How It Is Stated
REGULATORY CONTEXT

ISO/IEC 17025:2017 sets the general requirements for the competence, impartiality and consistent operation of testing and calibration laboratories, including method validation, measurement uncertainty, metrological traceability and interlaboratory comparison, with accreditation granted against a defined scope. It does not decide which methods you apply for, what uncertainty is fit for your customers’ decisions, or how you word the claim you make to them. Those determinations are the laboratory’s. The plan structure is SPEQ practitioner synthesis.

MAPPED STANDARDS
ISO/IEC 17025:2017
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