In order to carry out environmental inspection actions, Accredited Environmental Control Bodies (OCAA) must be accredited by ENAC according to the UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17020 standard. 

Castilla and Leon’s Ministry of Environment, Housing, and Land Planning published Decree 16/2024, which regulates the surveillance, inspection and control system for potentially polluting activities and installations in the region, and which creates and regulates the figure of Accredited Environmental Control Bodies (OCAA) for carrying out material inspections. 

The regulatory text stipulates that, in order to conduct these inspection activities, the OCAA must be registered in Castilla and Leon’s Register of Accredited Environmental Control Bodies, for which it is essential to be accredited by ENAC according to the UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17020 standard. 

In developing this Decree, last December, the General Directorate of Infrastructure and Environmental Sustainability published a resolution by which three applicable conformity assessment procedures were approved, specifically for livestock operations (PEC-EG), industrial installations and/or waste managers (PEC-IG), and integrated environmental authorization landfills (PEC-VE). 

ENAC is now in a position to receive accreditation requests from inspection bodies interested in operating according to the provisions established in Decree 16/2024. For more information, please contact Delia Gutiérrez, head of environmental authorizations, in ENAC’s Environment Department.  

Accreditation: a tool to support the Administration 

Increasingly, autonomous, national, and international public administrations rely on accreditation as a mechanism to ensure public sector confidence in the safety and integrity of activities within numerous economic sectors, this time concerning environmental control. 

Therefore, Decree 16/2024 is another demonstration of the Spanish Public Administration’s confidence in the ENAC accreditation, which enables Control Bodies to collaborate with the Administration of Castilla and León in conducting environmental inspections within its territory.