The draft federal law On accreditation in the National Accreditation System was developed by the Ministry of Economic Development to implement the concept of a unified national accreditation system in Russia. The concept was approved by Government Directive No 1760-r dated October 12, 2010.

The draft law is targeted at:

-   the effective use of the accreditation mechanism as a form of state regulation;

-   the creation and the effective functioning of the Russian national accreditation system, the establishment of unified policies, common principles and rules of accreditation in Russia;

-  meeting citizens’, society’s, and state requirements in obtaining objective and accurate results regarding the work of accredited parties;

-  improving the competence and the effectiveness of the work of accredited parties;

-  harmonizing accreditation rules and procedures according to international standards, recommendations, and creating conditions for the recognition of accreditation results and performance results of accredited parties in Russia and abroad;

-  providing conditions for fair competition and preventing its restriction in conformity assessment, providing the uniformity of measurements, and other spheres;

-  providing information transparency and availability in the sphere of accreditation for all the parties concerned;

-  establishing the institute of independent accreditation experts and the mechanism of pre-trial appeals in the sphere of accreditation.

The draft federal law contains legal regulations that determine the organisation and the functioning of the unified national accreditation system, and common accreditation rules applied in Russia. These include:

-  requirements for the procedure of submitting an application by the applicant and the documents necessary for accreditation, and their admission by a national accreditation agency;

-  requirements for the procedure of checking the applicant’s conformity to the established accreditation criteria;

-  requirements for decision-making on providing an accreditation certificate or accreditation denial;

-  requirements for the contents and the validity period of an accreditation certificate;

-  requirements for the accreditation procedure for the new period;

-  requirements for proving a duplicate of the accreditation certificate and its copy by a national accreditation agency;

-  requirements for the procedure of the reissuance of an accreditation certificate;

-  requirements for the expansion of the field of accreditation;

-  requirements for the procedure of the accreditation certificate’s termination;

-  requirements for the procedure of the termination and the re-validation of an accreditation certificate, annulling an accreditation certificate, and restricting the sphere of accreditation;

-  requirements for approving the competence of the accredited party;

-  requirements for state oversight over the activities of accredited parties;

-  responsibility of the accreditation participants.

The draft law was discussed and approved at the Government meeting on June 6, 2013.