The standard that accredits an inspection body's technical competence and impartiality. Without ENAC accreditation, an inspection report has no legal standing for the statutory inspections that Spanish industrial regulations reserve to accredited control bodies.
ISO/IEC 17020 (sometimes referred to simply as ISO 17020) is the international standard that sets the technical competence and impartiality requirements for bodies carrying out inspection activities: verifying that an installation, a product, a process or a service meets specified requirements, through professional examination and independent judgement. In Spain, accreditation under this standard is granted by ENAC (Entidad Nacional de Acreditación), designated as the sole national accreditation body by Spanish Royal Decree 1715/2010, of 17 December, implementing Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council. Without that accreditation, a statutory inspection report (lifts, petroleum installations, pressure equipment, gas, electrical installations) has no standing before the authorities: Spanish industrial regulations require it to be signed by an accredited control body, not simply by a competent technician.
Accreditation and certification are not the same thing, although they are confused daily. Certification assesses a management system (such as ISO 9001) or a product against a standard. Accreditation assesses the technical competence of the assessment body itself, and in Spain only ENAC can grant it, under an international mutual recognition framework (EA, IAF, ILAC). Because ENAC is a signatory to the EA and ILAC multilateral agreements, a report signed by a body accredited in Spain is accepted across the rest of the European Union (and, through the same agreements, by UKAS-accredited counterparts in the United Kingdom) without repeating the inspection.
The new edition, ISO/IEC 17020:2026 (also cited as ISO 17020:2026), was published on 1 April 2026 according to ENAC, replacing the 2012 edition that had been in force for over a decade. ENAC has set a three-year transition plan from the standard's publication date, that is, until April 2029, for both already-accredited bodies and new applicants. During that period, the criteria of the previous and the new edition coexist; from that date onward, only assessments under the 2026 edition will be recognised.
The scope is broad: industrial installations subject to safety regulations, technical control bodies in building and construction, environmental and agri-food inspection, and authorised control bodies in occupational risk prevention. Each sector adds further accreditation requirements on top of the standard's common baseline.
At Summum Calidad we support inspection bodies from the initial gap analysis through to the ENAC assessment: we design the impartiality management system, the technical inspection procedures and the traceability plan for the measuring equipment used in inspection, and we prepare the team for the documentary audit and the on-site assessment. We are consultants, not an accreditation body: accreditation is always granted by ENAC, following its own independent assessment.
An inspection body's position relative to what it inspects is the standard's central criterion, because it determines the risk of a commercial interest influencing the result. Until the 2012 edition, ISO/IEC 17020 distinguished three types: A, B and C. The ISO/IEC 17020:2026 edition, published on 1 April 2026, simplified that classification to two categories, type A and type non-A. ENAC has set a three-year transition period from the standard's publication date, that is, until April 2029, covering both already-accredited entities and those applying for new accreditation.
| Classification | What it requires | Typical example |
|---|---|---|
| Type A (2012 and 2026 editions) | An independent third party: no involvement in the design, manufacture, supply, installation, purchase, ownership, use or maintenance of the items it inspects, and no link to anyone who has. | A lift or petroleum installation inspection entity that belongs to neither the manufacturer nor the installer. |
| Type B (2012 edition only, in transition) | A body separate from a larger organisation, but that only inspects for that parent organisation; the functional separation protects impartiality within a first-party relationship. | The internal inspection department of an industrial company that audits only its own installations. |
| Type C (2012 edition only, in transition) | The body may design, manufacture, supply, install or maintain the items it inspects, provided it identifies and documents the risks to its impartiality and manages them. | A pressure equipment manufacturer that inspects its own equipment with safeguards declared to ENAC. |
| Type non-A (2026 edition) | Groups what were previously types B and C into a single category with common impartiality risk-management requirements, without the previous subdivision. | Any body that does not meet type A's full-independence criterion. |
For most Spanish industrial regulations (pressure equipment, petroleum installations, lifts), the authorities require type A bodies. Before defining the accreditation scope, it is worth checking which type the specific sector regulation requires, because not every scope accepts type non-A bodies.
ISO/IEC 17020 accreditation is not a generic requirement: each regulated sector demands a different accreditation scope, with additional ENAC criteria.
A single body may hold several scopes at once if it demonstrates independent technical competence in each; ENAC assesses each scope separately.
Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 requires every Member State to designate a single national accreditation body, holding public authority and with no commercial competition with the entities it assesses. In Spain that designation fell to ENAC through Royal Decree 1715/2010, which also repealed Articles 14 to 19 of Royal Decree 2200/1995 (the Regulation on Quality and Industrial Safety Infrastructure), which until then governed accreditation bodies. The rest of that 1995 Royal Decree remains in force.
That single designation has a practical consequence: in Spain, only ENAC accreditation carries the legal backing and international recognition (EA, IAF and ILAC agreements) that industrial safety regulations require. A private entity's seal without that accreditation may describe an internal control of the body, but it does not replace accreditation where a sector standard expressly requires it.
All three profiles belong to the ISO/IEC 17000 family of conformity assessment standards, but they assess different things. An inspection body (ISO/IEC 17020) examines an item (an installation, a product, a process) at a given point in time and issues a professional judgement based on defined criteria. A testing or calibration laboratory (ISO/IEC 17025) produces a measurable technical result, with declared uncertainty. A certification body (ISO/IEC 17021-1, for management systems, or ISO/IEC 17065, for products) assesses the conformity of a system or a product against a complete standard, through documentary and implementation audit.
A single organisation can need several of these at once: an installation subject to periodic inspection may depend on equipment calibrated by a 17025 laboratory, and the owning company may have its management system certified under ISO 9001 by a 17021-1 body. Calling an inspection accreditation a “certification” is a common mistake worth avoiding in front of a client or a regulator.
We assess the body's position against ISO/IEC 17020 and against ENAC's specific criteria for the requested scope (industry, construction, environment, agri-food). We review the impartiality policy, existing technical procedures and the qualification of inspection staff.
We draft the body's manual, the inspection procedures by scope, the impartiality risk analysis and the equipment's metrological traceability plan.
We support inspection staff in applying the system: reports, nonconformities, complaints. We carry out a full internal audit before calling in ENAC and prepare the management review.
We prepare the documentary assessment and the ENAC visit: a dry run with interviews of technical staff and live observation of inspections, closing nonconformities and responding to the assessor's report. After accreditation, we support the surveillance visits and periodic reassessment.
The operational detail: what we deliver as part of the work and what we keep alive afterwards.
System manual and impartiality policy
A document identifying the risks to the body's impartiality (commercial, ownership, client relationship) and the safeguards to manage them.
Technical inspection procedures
Inspection instructions by scope, acceptance/rejection criteria, report formats and a record of every inspection carried out.
Equipment traceability plan
An inventory of the measuring equipment used in inspection, a calibration schedule and acceptance criteria for calibration certificates.
Classification and justification of the body's type
A documented analysis of the body's position relative to the parties inspected, with the evidence ENAC requires under the applicable standard.
Nonconformity and complaint management
A procedure for client complaints, internal nonconformities and corrective actions, with a traceable record.
ENAC assessment dry run
An internal assessment using ENAC's protocol: documentary review, interviews with technical staff and observation of live inspections.
Normas y reglamentos verificados que aplican a este servicio: Regulation (EC) No 765/2008, of 9 July 2008, Spanish Royal Decree 1715/2010, of 17 December, Spanish Royal Decree 2200/1995, of 28 December (Regulation on Quality and Industrial Safety Infrastructure)….
An accredited inspection body often shares clients with a testing laboratory accredited under ISO/IEC 17025, and if it takes part in public procurement it needs the tender support that Summum Consultoría manages.
When the body also carries out testing or calibration, it needs ISO/IEC 17025 laboratory accreditation, with equivalent but distinct technical competence requirements.
View service → calidadA baseline quality management system when inspection is one division within a larger organisation that certifies the whole.
View service → consultoríaMany statutory inspection contracts are awarded through public tender: Summum Consultoría prepares the administrative and technical tender documentation.
View service →It is the formal recognition, granted by ENAC, that an inspection body is technically competent and impartial for a specific scope. ENAC is the sole national accreditation body in Spain, designated by Spanish Royal Decree 1715/2010 implementing Regulation (EC) No 765/2008. Summum Calidad does not grant accreditation: we support the process, but it is always ENAC that awards it, following its own independent assessment.
The type measures independence from what is being inspected. A type A body is an independent third party, with no design, manufacturing, supply, installation or maintenance links to the item inspected. The ISO/IEC 17020:2026 revision replaced the previous classification (types A, B and C) with two categories, type A and type non-A, simplifying a criterion that previously distinguished three levels of separation.
According to ENAC, it was published on 1 April 2026 and replaces the 2012 edition. It simplifies body types to A and non-A and strengthens data control, with a clause covering digital technologies, artificial intelligence and remote inspection techniques. ENAC has set a three-year transition period from the standard's publication date, that is, until April 2029, for already-accredited bodies and new applications.
It depends on the requested scope and the starting state of the documentary system; in our experience, a typical project takes around 8 to 14 months through to the award. ENAC issues the audit report within a maximum of 15 days from the end of the audit.
Yes, and it is common: many entities combine inspection (17020) with testing or calibration (17025) for the same client, for example in construction quality control or environmental work. These are separate accreditations, with separate scopes and assessments, although the underlying documentary system can share much of its structure.
Spanish industrial safety regulations (pressure equipment, petroleum installations, low voltage, gas, lifts) require that periodic statutory inspections be carried out by an authorised and accredited control body. Without ENAC accreditation for the specific scope, the inspection report has no legal standing before the competent regional authority.
An OCA (organismo de control autorizado) is the category that Spanish industrial safety regulations reserve for entities authorised to carry out statutory inspections. To operate as an OCA, an entity needs ENAC accreditation under ISO/IEC 17020 for the relevant scope, and authorisation from the region in which it operates.
No. Summum Calidad is a consultancy: we support the system design, the technical documentation and preparation for assessment, but accreditation is always granted independently by ENAC. We never promise or guarantee the outcome of ENAC's assessment.