This Technical Specification specifies the criteria related to proficiency testing by interlaboratory comparisons in the field of water, waste water and sludge analysis. In particular, it specifies the requirements in respect to proficiency test providers and to the design, execution and evaluation of laboratory proficiency comparisons. This document may be used if the determinands in the interlaboratory test may be regarded as capable of measurement with a certain degree of continuity. This is generally the case for chemical constituents and physicochemical determinands, but continuity does not always exist in the case of biological and/or microbiological determinands.