Laboratory Accreditations & Memberships

The Ministry of Justice works to protect the public and reduce reoffending, and to provide a more effective, transparent and responsive criminal justice system for victims and the public. Each year, millions of people use their services across the United Kingdom, including 500 courts and tribunals, and 133 prisons in England and Wales.

We work with many government agencies, including: HM Courts and
Tribunals Service, HM Passport Office, UK Visas and Immigration, HM Prison and Probation Service, Legal Aid Agency, Office of the Public Guardian, and Youth Justice Board.

Endeavor DNA Laboratories is accredited by the Ministry of Justice to carry out parentage tests as directed by the Civil courts in England and Wales under Section 20 of the Family Law Reform Act (1969).

Click here to verify our Ministry of Justice Accreditation.

ISO 17025 is the global standard for the technical competence of calibration and testing labs. As a laboratory accredited to ISO 17025:2017, Endeavor DNA, Inc. has incorporated an overall system for technical and quality management. This results in superior laboratory practices and customer service. We have implemented the ISO 17025 quality system in our laboratory and are fully accredited as of May 2016.

Our Quality Management Statement: Management is committed to being very aggressive in our attitude towards quality of our testing in servicing our customers, good professional practices and customer service, primarily since we want to be ranked as the “best” in our business. Our employees remain clearly focused on the Quality System so they may effectively implement the policies and procedures in their casework and quality control functions.

Click here to view our ISO 17025:2017 Certificate of Accreditation.

ANAB is a globally recognised laboratory accreditation organisation and a participant in multilateral cooperative agreements like the IAF and IAAC. Working in conjunction with accreditation bodies worldwide through agreements such as the IAF, ILAC, IAAC, and APLAC MRAs/MLAs, as well as the Multilateral Cooperative Accreditation Arrangement, ANAB ensures that accredited certificates receive recognition both on a national and international level. ISO/IEC 17025 serves as the international benchmark for ensuring the technical competence of laboratories, encompassing various aspects of laboratory management, including sample preparation, proficiency in analytical testing, and meticulous record-keeping and reporting, among others.

Click here to view our ANAB / ISO 17025:2017 Certificate for Forensic DNA Testing.

Click here to view our ANAB / ISO 17025:2017 Scope of Accreditation for Forensic DNA Testing.

The A2LA is the largest multi-discipline laboratory accreditation system in the United States and is recognised by Accreditation Bodies in the European Union and other International Communities. A2LA accreditation imposes stricter requirements than ISO 17025:2017 certification alone, particularly focusing on technical competence, traceability of measurements and the overall proficiency of the laboratory.

A2LA is a non-profit, non-governmental, public service, membership society whose mission is to: meet the needs of both laboratories and their users for competent testing; improve the quality of laboratories and the data they produce; and increase acceptance of accredited laboratory data to facilitate trade, based on internationally accepted criteria for competence (ISO / IEC 17025:2017).

Click here to view our ISO 17025:2017 Certificate of Accreditation.

We are one of only a handful of DNA testing laboratories actually accredited by the AABB (previously known as the American Association of Blood Banks). Accredited laboratories have passed a rigorous review and inspection of their testing processes and laboratory to insure that tests are being done accurately and thoroughly. Accredited laboratories also participate in proficiency tests and are re-inspected bi-annually. Only an AABB-accredited DNA laboratory is authorised to perform court admissible testing in the USA and provide testing services for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as well as the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

If you need AABB Accredited DNA testing, please visit our U.S. website.

Click here to view our AABB Certification of Accreditation.

The EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF) and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF) were respectively developed in furtherance of transatlantic commerce by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the European Commission and the UK Government to provide U.S. organizations with reliable mechanisms for personal data transfers to the United States from the European Union / European Economic Area and the United Kingdom (and Gibraltar) while ensuring data protection that is consistent with EU and UK law.

The ITA will update the Data Privacy Framework List on the basis of annual re-certification submissions made by participating organizations and by removing organizations when they voluntarily withdraw, fail to complete the annual re-certification in accordance with the ITA's procedures, or are found to persistently fail to comply. The ITA will also maintain and make available to the public an authoritative record of U.S. organizations that have been removed from the Data Privacy Framework List and will identify the reason each organization was removed.

Verify our participation with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework here.

The College of American Pathologists, the principal organisation of board-certified pathologists, serves and represents the interest of patients, pathologists, and the public by fostering excellence in the practice of pathology and laboratory medicine. Endeavor DNA, Inc. is a member of CAP, and participates in its proficiency testing program.

Click here to view our current CAP Certificate.

In light of the amendment of ISO 9001:2008, the International Accreditation Forum (IAF), the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), and the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) have issued a revised communiqué declaring that the management system requirements of ISO/IEC 17025 meet the principles of ISO 9001:2008.

ILAC has issued a covering letter dated April 2017, explaining the rationale for the communiqué.

The International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) first started as a conference in 1977 with the aim of developing international cooperation for facilitating trade by promotion of the acceptance of accredited test and calibration results. In 1996, ILAC became a formal cooperation with a charter to establish a network of mutual recognition agreements among accreditation bodies that would fulfill this aim. The ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement (often referred to as the ILAC Arrangement) is the culmination of 22 years of intensive work.

The arrangement came into effect on 31 January 2001. The ILAC Arrangement provides significant technical underpinning to international trade. The key to the Arrangement is the developing global network of accredited testing and calibration laboratories that are assessed and recognised as being competent by ILAC Arrangement signatory accreditation bodies. The signatories have, in turn, been peer-reviewed and shown to meet ILAC’s criteria for competence. Now that the ILAC Arrangement is in place, governments can take advantage of it to further develop or enhance trade agreements. The ultimate aim is increased use and acceptance by industry as well as government of the results from accredited laboratories, including results from laboratories in other countries. In this way, the free-trade goal of “a product tested once and accepted everywhere” can be realised.

A list of the ILAC-MRA signatories and the scopes of accreditation we are accredited to due to our ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation through A2LA (Testing certificate 4049.01) can be found here.