Article 8U.K.Investigative bodies
1.Member States shall ensure that safety investigations are conducted under the responsibility of an impartial permanent investigative body, endowed with the necessary powers, and by suitably qualified investigators, competent in matters relating to marine casualties and incidents.
In order to carry out a safety investigation in an unbiased manner, the investigative body shall be independent in its organisation, legal structure and decision-making of any party whose interests could conflict with the task entrusted to it.
Landlocked Member States which have neither ships nor vessels flying their flag will identify an independent focal point to cooperate in the investigation pursuant to Article 5(1)(c).
2.The investigative body shall ensure that individual investigators have a working knowledge of, and practical experience in, those subject areas pertaining to their normal investigative duties. Additionally, the investigative body shall ensure ready access to appropriate expertise, as necessary.
3.The activities entrusted to the investigative body may be extended to the gathering and analysis of data relating to maritime safety, in particular for prevention purposes, insofar as these activities do not affect its independence or entail responsibility in regulatory, administrative or standardisation matters.
4.Member States, acting in the framework of their respective legal systems, shall ensure that the investigators of its investigative body, or of any other investigative body to which it has delegated the task of safety investigation, where appropriate in collaboration with the authorities responsible for the judicial inquiry, be provided with any information pertinent to the conduct of the safety investigation and therefore be authorised to:
(a)have free access to any relevant area or casualty site as well as to any ship, wreck or structure including cargo, equipment or debris;
(b)ensure immediate listing of evidence and controlled search for and removal of wreckage, debris or other components or substances for examination or analysis;
(c)require examination or analysis of the items referred to in point (b), and have free access to the results of such examinations or analysis;
(d)have free access to, copy and have use of any relevant information and recorded data, including VDR data, pertaining to a ship, voyage, cargo, crew or any other person, object, condition or circumstance;
(e)have free access to the results of examinations of the bodies of victims or of tests made on samples taken from the bodies of victims;
(f)require and have free access to the results of examinations of, or tests made on samples taken from, people involved in the operation of a ship or any other relevant person;
(g)interview witnesses in the absence of any person whose interests could be considered as hampering the safety investigation;
(h)obtain survey records and relevant information held by the flag State, the owners, classification societies or any other relevant party, whenever those parties or their representatives are established in the Member State;
(i)call for the assistance of the relevant authorities in the respective States, including flag-State and port-State surveyors, coastguard officers, vessel traffic service operators, search and rescue teams, pilots or other port or maritime personnel.
5.The investigative body shall be enabled to respond immediately on being notified at any time of a casualty, and to obtain sufficient resources to carry out its functions independently. Its investigators shall be afforded status giving them the necessary guarantees of independence.
6.The investigating body may combine its tasks under this Directive with the work of investigating occurrences other than marine casualties on condition that such investigations do not endanger its independence.