The new federal law will facilitate the accreditation and conformity assessment procedure in Russia

On June 11, 2021, Federal Law No. 176-FZ was published. It introduces changes to the procedures of the national accreditation system of the Russian Federation. The main changes relate to Federal Law No. 412-FZ of December 28, 2013. The solutions adopted are aimed at streamlining the accreditation and conformity assessment procedure. The Federal Law will apply from March 1, 2022, although for some provisions earlier dates of entry into force were established.

The most important changes

Federal law introduces a number of changes to the national accreditation system. The most important of them are listed below:

  • possibility to remotely assess whether the applicant and the accredited person meet the accreditation and witnessing criteria
  • the possibility of self-limiting the scope of accreditation by an accredited person without submitting an application through the register of accredited persons

Changes to the scope of powers of the federal executive body

In the section on the powers of the Federal Executive, the following terms of reference have been added:

  • the formation of an expert group, including cases of the compulsory inclusion of an accreditation expert and / or technical experts in the expert group, for which a federal institution reporting to the national accreditation body is the main place of work or with which it cooperates in accordance with Part 8 of Art. 14 of the federal law
  • approval of forms and lists of information contained in expert opinions, test certificates as well as the procedure for filling in this kind of documents

Clarification of the rights and obligations of accredited persons

Article 13 of the Federal Law explains the rights and obligations of accredited persons. This includes the obligation to provide, at the request of the national accreditation body, documents and information in electronic form (electronic documents or scans) indicating the legally required competences of accredited persons and their compliance with the accreditation criteria, within 15 working days from the date of receipt of such a request. Previously, there was no specific deadline for the delivery of these documents.

Pursuant to this new federal law, after the termination of the activity as an accredited person, not only the national accreditation body should be notified of this fact, but also all decisions made regarding the validity of conformity assessment documents issued or registered during the accreditation period that have not expired yet should be reported.. The deadline for notifying about such a situation has been extended from 15 to 20 working days from the date of submitting the application for termination of accreditation activities.

Accreditation implementation procedures

The new Federal Law also defines the procedure for carrying out the accreditation procedure. In order to obtain accreditation, the applicant submits an application for Rossacreditation signed with a qualified electronic signature along with the electronic documents attached to it. Accredited persons will be able to submit an application to the department no earlier than 6 months from the date of submitting the application for the completion of the procedure for selecting an accreditation expert who is the chairman of the group of experts.