AQSIQ announces quality assessment standards for inspection agencies

[Introduction] On the 30th, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine issued on its official website the "Notice on Doing a Good Job in Classification Supervision of Product Quality Inspection Institutions in 2014" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), requiring provincial-level quality inspection bureaus to submit assessment results and work summaries within the time limit.

According to the introduction, the scope of the classification supervision and assessment of the work quality of product quality inspection institutions in 2014 is: the inspection institutions that undertook product quality supervision spot checks, industrial product production license issuance inspections, and product quality safety risk monitoring work in the quality and technical supervision system in 2013. Provinces with conditions are encouraged to expand the scope to product quality inspection institutions (product quality supervision and inspection institutes (institutes) at or above the county level, national product quality supervision and inspection centers, and product quality supervision and inspection stations (centers)) established and authorized by quality and technical supervision departments in accordance with the law.

The Notice points out that according to the assessment results, the work quality of inspection institutions is divided into four categories from high to low: Class I, Class II, Class III, and Class IV. The proportion of Class I inspection institutions in each province shall not exceed 15%, and the proportion of Class II inspection institutions shall not exceed 55%. Inspection institutions with less than 300 inspection reports in the assessment year shall not be rated as Class I inspection institutions; inspection institutions with scores less than 60 points shall be Class IV inspection institutions. If an inspection institution has any of the following problems, it shall be rated as a Class IV inspection institution or downgraded to a Class IV inspection institution: if the inspection work during the assessment year and the assessment period causes adverse social impact, if there are violations of regulations and disciplines such as over-scope inspection and issuing false inspection results during the assessment year, if there are subcontracting supervision and random inspection, production licensing and risk monitoring and other work tasks, if the inspection equipment of other units is rented without authorization to carry out supervision and random inspection, production licensing and risk monitoring and other work, and if other serious quality problems are found in daily supervision and management.

To ensure the implementation of this work, the Notice requires that all provincial-level quality supervision bureaus should attach great importance to it, fully recognize the importance and urgency of the classification supervision of inspection institutions, and take the classification supervision of inspection institutions as an important task. It is necessary to combine the classification supervision of inspection institutions with various supervision measures of inspection institutions, timely discover good practices and experiences, pay attention to collecting opinions and suggestions from inspection institutions, form a scientific, complete and effective supervision work mechanism, and lay a solid foundation for improving the classification supervision work. All provincial-level quality supervision bureaus should implement the classification supervision of inspection institutions in accordance with the principles of fairness, justice, science and rigor. The selected on-site assessment personnel should strictly follow the assessment standards of the "Detailed Rules for Classification Evaluation of the Work Quality of Product Quality Inspection Institutions", unify the assessment scale and standards, and ensure that they are conscientious, fair, honest, accurate and reliable during the on-site assessment process. All provincial-level quality supervision bureaus should submit the assessment and evaluation results and work summary according to the time limit requirements. The work summary includes the overall situation of the work, the analysis of the assessment situation, the main practices in implementation, and suggestions for improving the work.

In addition, the Notice clarifies the work schedule:
1. Complete the designation and training of on-site assessment experts before July 31.
2. Complete the on-site assessment and classification evaluation of the inspection agencies before September 15.
(III) Before September 30, the summary of the assessment and evaluation work and the Summary Table of the Classification Assessment and Evaluation of Product Quality Inspection Institutions shall be submitted to the Product Quality Supervision Department of the General Administration.
(IV) Before October 30, the General Administration will organize relevant experts to conduct a written review of the assessment and evaluation work summaries submitted by provincial-level quality supervision bureaus and the "Summary of Classification Assessment and Evaluation of Product Quality Inspection Institutions", and conduct random checks on the assessment and evaluation work of some provincial-level quality supervision bureaus.
(V) The General Administration and provincial quality supervision bureaus shall report the results of this assessment and evaluation before November 30.