Policy Circular 11—Traceability of measurement policy

Policy Circular 11—January 2007

Traceability of Measurement Policy

Published by the National Association of Testing Authorities, Australia (NATA). Copyright National Association of Testing Authorities, Australia 2007

Distribution: A copy of this circular can be found on the NATA website at www.nata.asn.au in the Technical Publications section under Policy and Technical Circulars or
by contacting NATA Communications on (02)9736 8222

Amendment History: Issued March 2003, Amended and reissued: March 2005, December 2006, January 2007

This policy is applicable to all facilities accredited with

NATA, whether they are located in Australia or overseas.
Specific calibration requirements and related traceability
issues are included in the field and program application
documents that are available from the NATA website under
Accreditation requirements.
1. Policy
NATA’s measurement traceability policy requires all
test, measurement and calibration equipment that has a
significant effect on the reported results and associated
uncertainties of measurement (including, where relevant,
instruments used for monitoring critical environmental
conditions) to be traceable to national and international
standards of measurement. To ensure this policy is
maintained all facilities must have their equipment or
instruments calibrated by one (or more, if relevant) of the
organisations included below:
1. NATA-accredited calibration laboratories and the
results reported on a NATA endorsed document;
2. Australia’s National Measurement Institute (NMI);
3. calibration laboratories accredited by one of NATA’s
mutual recognition arrangement (MRA) partners,
when the MRA recognition covers calibration, and the
results are reported on an endorsed document;1
4. the national metrology institutes that are signatories to
the Comité International des Poids et Mesures (CIPM)
MRA.2
Some facilities may be using reference materials to
demonstrate the traceability of their test results. Reference
materials used for this purpose must also be traceable to
known standards. This may be achieved through the use
of reference materials produced by accredited suppliers,
or organisations that provide relevant information on
the uncertainty of measurement and traceability of the
reference material.
1 of 1
2. Further Information
Additional background and general information on
calibration services is provided in NATA Information
Paper 1 – How Confident Are You in Your Calibration Provider?,
also available from the NATA website.
The document Traceability in Chemical Measurement. A guide
to achieving comparable results in chemical measurement (available
from www.measurementuncertainty.org) also provides
additional information on this topic.
If you have any queries in relation to this policy please
contact either:
Regina Robertson, General Manager, Technical
email: Regina.Robertson@nata.asn.au
ph: (02) 9736 8222 (NATA, Sydney)
or
Helen Liddy, International Relations Manager,
email: Helen.Liddy@nata.asn.au
ph: (03) 9329 1633 (NATA, Melbourne).
1. For details of NATA’s current MRA partners, refer to NATA’s web site:
www.nata.asn.au
2. The calibration must actually be done by the NMI. Unendorsed reports
from organisations claiming traceability to a NMI or those bearing only an ISO
9000 series certification logo are not acceptable.