From the accreditation bodies operating in Germany in 2010 a unifying office was formed out of the individual active state entities. In accordance with Article 4, paragraph 1 of EC regulation No 765/2008, member states were obliged to designate one single national accreditation body from 1 January 2010. The German Accreditation Office Ltd (DAkkS) was set up as a result of this requirement under EC regulations.

The legal framework for the establishment of the national accreditation body was created in Germany when the law governing the setting up of the accreditation body came into effect on 7 August 2009. The German Accreditation Office was granted its finance and accordingly now carries out accreditations for all of the con-formity assessment bodies (KBS) in Germany such as testing or calibration laboratories.

The former EA (European co-operation for accreditation) members DGA (formerly DACH, DAP and TGA / DATECH) and DKD were subsumed into this limited company (decree of the organization BMWi). The German Accreditation Office covers the current fields of activity of DGA and DKD completely. The accreditations of DACH, DAP, TGA / DATECH and DKD are valid until they expire in 2015 and are monitored by the German Accreditation Office.

It conducts accreditation in the following areas: testing laboratories, calibration laboratories, medical laborato-ries, product certification, management certification, personnel certification, inspection bodies, providers of proficiency testing and producers of reference materials.

The Accreditation Body of the German Calibration Service (DKD) was subsumed into the German Accreditation Office (DAkkS) with effect from 17 December 2009. The formal accreditation activities of the German Ac-creditation Office have been separated since this time from its scientific and technical work.

To promote uniformity in measuring systems and with the aim of providing supplementary technical support, a committee was set up on 3 May 2011 at the Federal Institute for Technical Physics (PTB) for the development of the technical measuring basis of calibration, providing a forum where the PTB and the accredited calibration laboratories could work closely together. This body is called the German Calibration Service (DKD) and is under the direction of the PTB.

In order to preserve for the future the hitherto successful system of the DKD technical committees, the PTB has declared itself prepared to take over the patronage of the technical committees and to take care of the technical and organizational matters and through its membership of EURAMET to act as a link between the national and European level, for example, in the creation of guidelines on calibration.

With its laboratories and technical committees, the German Calibration Service (DKD) is able to safeguard the technical expertise and the link between industrial measuring systems and and the legal mandate of the PTB for the dissemination of the units in Germany. Through the technical monitoring of calibration laboratories by the Federal Institute of Technical Physics (PTB), the institute is able to guarantee that the test equipment used by qualified technicians is calibrated and traceable to national standards by the PTB.

You will find more information about DAkkS here.