Regulation (EC) No 391/2009 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilShow full title

ANNEX I U.K.

MINIMUM CRITERIA FOR ORGANISATIONS TO OBTAIN OR TO CONTINUE TO ENJOY COMMUNITY RECOGNITION (referred to in Article 3) U.K.

A. GENERAL MINIMUM CRITERIA U.K.

1. A recognised organisation must have legal personality in the State of its location. Its accounts shall be certified by independent auditors. U.K.

2. The recognised organisation must be able to document extensive experience in assessing the design and construction of merchant ships. U.K.

3. The recognised organisation must be equipped at all times with significant managerial, technical, support and research staff commensurate with the size of the fleet in its class, its composition and the organisation’s involvement in the construction and conversion of ships. The recognised organisation must be capable of assigning to every place of work, when and as needed, means and staff commensurate with the tasks to be carried out in accordance with general minimum criteria under points 6 and 7 and with the specific minimum criteria under part B. U.K.

4. The recognised organisation must have and apply a set of own comprehensive rules and procedures, or the demonstrated ability thereto, for the design, construction and periodic survey of merchant ships, having the quality of internationally recognised standards. They must be published and continually upgraded and improved through research and development programmes. U.K.

5. The recognised organisation must have its register of ships published on an annual basis or maintained in an electronic database accessible to the public. U.K.

6. The recognised organisation must not be controlled by shipowners or shipbuilders, or by others engaged commercially in the manufacture, equipping, repair or operation of ships. The recognised organisation is not substantially dependent on a single commercial enterprise for its revenue. The recognised organisation does not carry out class or statutory work if it is identical to or has business, personal or family links to the shipowner or operator. This incompatibility shall also apply to surveyors employed by the recognised organisation. U.K.

7. The recognised organisation must operate in accordance with the provisions set out in the Annex to IMO Resolution A.789(19) on specifications on the survey and certification functions of recognised organisations acting on behalf of the administration, in so far as they cover matters falling within the scope of this Regulation. U.K.

B. SPECIFIC MINIMUM CRITERIA U.K.

1. The recognised organisation must provide worldwide coverage by its exclusive surveyors or, in exceptional and duly justified cases, through exclusive surveyors of other recognised organisations. U.K.

2. The recognised organisation must be governed by a code of ethics. U.K.

3. The recognised organisation must be managed and administered in such a way as to ensure the confidentiality of information required by the administration. U.K.

4. The recognised organisation must provide relevant information to the administration, to the Commission and to interested parties. U.K.

5. The recognised organisation, its surveyors and its technical staff shall carry out their work without in any way harming the intellectual property rights of shipyards, equipment suppliers, and shipowners, including patents, licences, know-how, or any other kind of knowledge whose use is legally protected at international, Community or national level; under no circumstances, and without prejudice to the assessment powers of Member States and the Commission and in particular under Article 9, may either the recognised organisation or the surveyors and technical staff, whom it employs pass on or divulge commercially relevant data obtained in the course of their work of inspecting, checking, and monitoring ships under construction or repair. U.K.

6. The recognised organisation’s management must define and document its policy and objectives for, and commitment to, quality and must ensure that this policy is understood, implemented and maintained at all levels in the recognised organisation. The recognised organisation’s policy must refer to safety and pollution prevention performance targets and indicators. U.K.

7. The recognised organisation must ensure that: U.K.

(a)

its rules and procedures are established and maintained in a systematic manner;

(b)

its rules and procedures are complied with and an internal system to measure the quality of service in relation to these rules and procedures is put in place;

(c)

the requirements of the statutory work for which the recognised organisation is authorised are satisfied and an internal system to measure the quality of service in relation to compliance with the international conventions is put in place;

(d)

the responsibilities, powers and interrelation of personnel whose work affects the quality of the recognised organisation’s services are defined and documented;

(e)

all work is carried out under controlled conditions;

(f)

a supervisory system is in place which monitors the actions and work carried out by surveyors and technical and administrative staff employed by the recognised organisation;

(g)

surveyors have an extensive knowledge of the particular type of ship on which they carry out their work as relevant to the particular survey to be carried out and of the relevant applicable requirements;

(h)

a system for qualification of surveyors and continuous updating of their knowledge is implemented;

(i)

records are maintained, demonstrating achievement of the required standards in the items covered by the services performed, as well as the effective operation of the quality system;

(j)

a comprehensive system of planned and documented internal audits of the quality related activities is maintained in all locations;

(k)

the statutory surveys and inspections required by the harmonised system of survey and certification for which the recognised organisation is authorised are carried out in accordance with the provision set out in the Annex and Appendix to IMO Resolution A.948(23) on survey guidelines under the harmonised system of survey and certification;

(l)

clear and direct lines of responsibility and control are established between the central and the regional offices of the recognised organisation and between the recognised organisations and their surveyors.

8. The recognised organisation must have developed, implemented and must maintain an effective internal quality system based on appropriate parts of internationally recognised quality standards and in compliance with EN ISO/IEC 17020:2004 (inspection bodies) and with EN ISO 9001:2000 (quality management systems, requirements), as interpreted and certified by the quality assessment and certification entity referred to in Article 11(1). U.K.

9. The rules and procedures of the recognised organisation must be implemented in such a way that the organisation remains in a position to derive from its own direct knowledge and judgment a reliable and objective declaration on the safety of the ships concerned by means of class certificates on the basis of which statutory certificates can be issued. U.K.

10. The recognised organisation must have the necessary means of assessing, through the use of qualified professional staff and pursuant to the provisions set out in the Annex to IMO Resolution A.913(22) on guidelines on implementation of the International Safety Management (ISM) Code by administrations, the application and maintenance of the safety management system, both shore-based and on board ships, intended to be covered in the certification. U.K.

11. The recognised organisation must allow participation in the development of its rules and procedures by representatives of the administration and other parties concerned. U.K.