The accredited bodies carrying out the inspection operations provided for in Article L. 721-9 at the request of the defence and management organisation or an operator, are third-party bodies, independent of the parties involved. Their staff must not engage in any activity that may, in the performance of their conformity assessment mission, undermine their independence of judgement, impartiality and integrity.
Supervision of compliance with an approved specification may only be carried out by an inspection or certification body which has submitted an application for accreditation, the operational admissibility of which has been the subject of a favourable decision by the accreditation body, for a field of competence covering the specification. Accreditation must be obtained within a maximum period of one year from notification of this favourable operational admissibility decision.
The accreditation body shall make available on its website an updated list of accredited inspection or certification bodies. These bodies must inform the defence and management organisations without delay of any change in the status of their accreditation.
This report shall contain the accreditation mark or a textual reference to the accreditation.