7. The Department shall ensure that—
(a)it or a party contracted by it apply quality management system practices in accordance with EN ISO/IEC-17025 standard or other equivalent standard accepted at international level;
(b)it or a party contracted by it demonstrate their competence in analysing relevant physico-chemical or chemical measurands by:
(i)participation in proficiency testing programmes covering the methods of analysis referred to in regulation 4 of measurands at levels of concentrations that are representative of monitoring programmes carried out under regulation 9 of the 2003 regulations, and
(ii)analysis of available reference materials that are representative of collected samples which contain appropriate levels of concentrations in relation to relevant environmental quality standards referred to in regulation 5;
(c)the proficiency testing programme referred to in paragraph (b) subparagraph (i) shall be organised by accredited organisations or internationally or nationally recognised organisations which meet the requirements of ISO/IEC guide 43-1(1) or of other equivalent standard accepted at international level; and
(d)the results of participation in the proficiency testing programmes referred to in paragraph (b) subparagraph (i) shall be evaluated on the basis of the scoring systems set out in ISO/IEC guide 43-1 or in the ISO-13528 standard(2) or in other equivalent standard accepted at international level.
ISO/IEC Guide 43-1 Proficiency testing by interlaboratory comparison Part 1: Development and operation of proficiency testing schemes. Published by the International Organisation for Standardisation (www.iso.org).
ISO 13528:2005. Statistical methods for use in proficiency testing by interlaboratory comparisons. Published by the International Organisation for Standardisation (www.iso.org).