• The evaluation and certification of auditors of management systems.
• The approval of training organisations and the certification of the auditor training courses they present.

By far the majority of auditors registered with IRCA are registered to the mainstream 'generic' scheme. This represents a generalist knowledge and work experience in conjunction with the required quality experience and auditing skills. However, the generalist is not particularly well supported, especially by some industries where technical complexities make auditing difficult and where the auditors do not possess knowledge and experience specific to that industry. IRCA has developed sector scheme, where auditors are required to demonstrate that they have a background in the particular industry. Although theses sector schemes covers a relatively minor part of IRCA's register, they are highly valued by the users' industries.

IRCA currently operators sector schemes for Aerospace, Software Development (TickIT), Maritime Safety management and Pharmaceutical Supply. In addition to these sector schemes, IRCA operators a scheme, IRCA operators for the registration of international auditors.

IRCA responded to the increase in interest in environmental management systems in 1997 with the launch of a scheme to register auditors of environmental management systems. Although in its early stages, the EMS scheme is likely to develop in line the increase in ISO 14001 certification.

Recent concerns over the exposure of business and industry to electronic transactions have promoted the DIT to initiate a new accredited certification scheme for organisations wishing to demonstrate the security of their own information systems. A revised BS 7799 standards was released early in 1998 and IRCA's registration scheme for c:cure auditors was launched in June 1998.

Occupational Health and Safety, Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) and other initiatives are currently being investigated and IRCA anticipates an involvement in these schemes.

In 1993, IRCA was instrumental in bringing together the world's major auditor registration bodies under the auspices of the International Auditor and Training Certification Association (IATCA), with the purpose of harmonjsing auditor registration criteria. Now, five years later, such objectives nearing achievement. IRCA began evaluating applicants against agreed IATCA criteria in 1997 and, now the IATCA multi-lateral agreements (MLA) has been signed, IRCA will formally issue certificates to those auditors that have been evaluated and found to comply.

One of the key requirements of auditor registration is for the applicant to have successfully completed an IRCA approved training course. The first five day Auditor/ Lead Auditor course were introduced in 1989 with a handful of providers offering the course. IRCA recognised that training provided an opportunity to improve the skill levels of auditors and in 1994 radically restructured auditor training both in terms of control of the training organisation presenting the courses and the structure of the course themselves. Although most course providers were based in the UK, a significant number of course were now being presented overseas, many in countries with different cultures and often in a different language, In order to maintain consistency, a new approach to control was required, with the emphasis moving away from inspection of the course presentation and towards the assessment of the management processes used by the course provider in controlling their course presentations. A modular approach to training was developed to make auditor training more focused on the type of application and also to introduced flexibility into the training process. Course presenters can now offer the IRCA controlled auditor training courses shown opposite.

Recently IRCA has developed two EMS auditing two EMS auditing courses- a five day and a three day module in support of the environmental management systems scheme.

IRCA registration is an industry recognized and transferable qualification for the professional auditor. It demonstrates, objectively to the client, the competence of auditors employed in audits.

The employment of IRCA registered auditors by a certification body demonstrates a commitment to overall competence to the accreditation body. However, accredited certification does not mandate the use of auditors registered with IRCA or any other organization. At various times, in an attempt to realize economies, some certification bodies have investigated the use of auditors whose competence has not been assessed independently, Nevertheless, the value of independent auditor registration is well established by the organisations seeking certification and, increasingly, by accreditation bodies.

IRCA was established in 1984, around the same time as NACCB and NAMAS (which later merged to from UKAS). Theses three, in conjunction with BSI Standards, were regarded as the four pillars supporting the BS 5750 infrastructure within the UK.

IRCA is a wholly owned division of the institute of Quality Assurance (IQA), although it operators independently. In the early days of BS 5750, the DTI's projections regarding the take up of accredited certification were somewhat conservative, with the published expectations reveling a need for between 300 and 350 lead auditors as a , maximum requirements for the foreseeable future in the UK. BS 5750 (subsequently ISO 9000) is now recognized as a real UK success story with the DTI's original projections out by a factor of well over ten. At the time of writing, the IRCA register has just under 10,000 auditors has just under 10,000 lead auditors registered, with 4,500 resident and operating auditors in the UK and the remainder spread over 8- other countries across the globe.

IRCA represent easily the largest approval body for training organizations presenting auditor training courses. Currently, there are just over 90 organisations approved to present 160 certified courses. Each year, theses training organisations present over 4,500 IRCA certified courses in all parts of the world. For the first years represented a relatively minor component of the IQA's overall operations. Today, after 14 years of sometimes exponential growth, IRCA's activities represent well half total resources employed within the IQA Secretarial.