[Updated 16 March, see below.]
UKAS has released a statement on the invasion of Ukraine without mentioning Russia, while dodging all legal responsibility for complying with UK and international sanctions.
In a release published on 8 March, UKAS only directed its accredited certification bodies to “operate in full compliance with relevant sanctions imposed by the UK Government” while making no such move to comply with the requirements itself.
It is our expectation that you will take appropriate and timely action to ensure that you are operating in full compliance with relevant sanctions and ensure no UKAS accredited conformity assessment activities are provided to persons or bodies covered by relevant sanctions.
In reality, UKAS itself must comply with the sanctions, and not merely pass them down to its clients. Slowly, other accreditation bodies, such as RvA (Netherlands) and IAS (USA) have released solid, actionable policies that show how accreditation bodies can comply with the law while continuing to offer services outside of Russia and Belarus, the two countries under international sanctions.
However, UKAS places the full brunt of responsibility on its CBs, not even agreeing to monitor sanctions for itself (emphasis added):
We appreciate that this is an emerging situation, and the sanctions (from multiple jurisdictions) are evolving. Hence, this will require careful ongoing review and consideration, on your behalf, to ensure compliance whilst also avoiding non-sanctioned persons or bodies from being unduly affected.
Ironically, the UK sanctions fall under anti-money laundering (AML) regulations of that country, and UKAS is funded in part by money paid by sanctioned entities, “cleaned” as it passes through UKAS’ certification bodies.
Under the leadership of Matt Gantley, UKAS has largely flouted international law and safety, helping to promote companies involved in international crimes, human rights abuses, and various unethical practices.
Oxebridge founder Christopher Paris criticized Gantley, saying, “Matt Gantley has not yet found a vice or ethics violation he isn’t willing to ignore, so long as UKAS gets paid. He has single-handedly set fire to the UK’s reputation in the ISO certification scheme. The UK government should investigate UKAS immediately, audit its books, and probe Gantley himself for criminal culpability.”
UPDATE 16 March 2022: The UKAS website no longer reports any search results for clients in Russia or Belarus. In addition, the UKAS list of suspensions now includes a number of Russian testing companies. This appears to signal that UKAS is quietly ceasing all its accreditation activities in the region, but stopped short of forcing its certification body clients to do the same. UKAS continues to accredit CBs who certify companies in Russia, as well as some under international sanctions.
