There are many areas in society where public supervision already utilizes accreditation. Take, for example, the inspection of elevators in residential buildings. In this case, the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Boverket) sets the rules for elevators. Then it is the property owner’s responsibility to ensure that the elevator inspection is carried out by an accredited company. Finally, it is up to the municipality to verify that the inspection has been conducted. Thanks to the inspection being performed by an accredited inspection body, the municipality can trust the results and does not need to inspect the elevator itself.

Another value in the supervision task is that accreditation can be used for testing, inspection, certification, and verification as support for an initial overview during a supervision task. This means that if parts performed by accredited organizations can be used, they are already quality assured and competence confirmed. The supervision can then focus on areas where it is not as clear that they have been supervised.

In the future, supervision with the help of accreditation could take place in more areas. For this to be possible, all involved parties must see an increased societal benefit. One of the advantages is, for example, increased possibilities for uniformity in supervision across the country. In a discussion about future paths to quality, Swedac can explain the values of the accreditation tool.