British Board of Agrément

[edit] Introduction

The British Board of Agrément (BBA) is an independent UK organisation that offers an approval service for construction products, systems and installers. They are the UK's major authority for providing reassurance to consumers, and achieve this through Agrément Certificates.

[edit] BBA certification

The BBA offer a range of different services, as outlined below:

[edit] Agrément certificates

An agrément certificate is issued for a successful product or system following a detailed assessment including both laboratory testing and inspections. In addition, the manufacturer is audited to ensure they have an adequate quality management system. Repeated testing is undertaken for the duration of the certificate’s validity period.

[edit] Test reports

A test report is issued by the BBA following the successful sampling of a product on a particular day.

[edit] Assessment reports

An assessment report is issued by the BBA following the successful assessment of specific properties of a product or system.

[edit] Product certification

To receive product certification, a product is tested against certain standards or other documentation.

[edit] Management systems certification

A management system can be assessed and certified to confirm that the product is manufactured in a controlled environment.

[edit] CE marking

A product with CE marking demonstrates that the manufacturer meets appropriate European legislation.

[edit] Production control

Production control ensures that manufacturers continue to produce products that conform to a technical specification.

[edit] Prototype assessment

A prototype assessment report confirms the likely performance of a prototype product at the validation stage.

[edit] Governing board

The BBA governing board is made up of executive and non-executive directors. The non-executive directors are from the UK construction industry.

[edit] UKAS accreditations

The BBA holds the following combination of United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) accreditations:

• Product approval.
• Test bodies.
• Site inspections.
• ISO 9001 assessment.
• ISO 14001 assessment.

[edit] Product Excellence Programme

In October 2018, the BBA launched a new scheme, the Product Excellence Programme (PEP), with the aim of providing enhanced assurance to designers, specifiers and clients regarding construction products and building solutions. The scheme has been introduced in response to heightened quality concerns post-Grenfell Tower.

At present, BBA management systems auditors visit client manufacturing facilities on a six-monthly basis to ensure compliance with the agreed quality plan relating to BBA-certified products. Under the new PEP scheme, a product testing regime is introduced:

• Complexity 1 products: Those which possess fire or structural type characteristics – will be tested annually.
• Complexity 2 products: Those which do not possess fire or structural type characteristics – will be tested every three years.

The BBA will randomly select products of both complexities for testing during audits, and if the agreed specifications are not met they will be subject to immediate further investigation. Any companies that are not able to address the failure source will face having their BBA certificate withdrawn.

Existing BBA certificate-holders are to be enrolled onto PEP automatically, and certificates are to include information about PEP compliance in the future.

Brian Moore, BBA deputy CEO, said:

“PEP is an enhancement to the proven audit and inspection service that the BBA has provided for many years, bringing additional rigour and excellence to the process. Post-Grenfell, consumers are looking for a higher degree of reassurance and expect products to be tested regularly by a trustworthy and externally assessed independent body such as the BBA, which is UKAS accredited.”

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

• Agrément certificate.
• BBA becomes an Approved Body for UKCA Marking.
• Brexit standards, products and regulatory updates.
• British standards.
• CE marking.
• Construction products regulations.
• European Technical Approval.
• International Organisation for Standardisation.
• Kitemark.
• Manufacturer’s certificate.
• Publicly available specification.
• Third party accreditation.
• United Kingdom Accreditation Service UKAS.
• Upcycling buildings.

[edit] External references

• British Board of Agrément.