A national accreditation body shall fulfil the following requirements:
1.
it shall be organised in such a manner as to make it independent of the conformity assessment bodies it assesses and of commercial pressures, and to ensure that no conflicts of interest with conformity assessment bodies occur;
2.
it shall be organised and operated so as to safeguard the objectivity and impartiality of its activities;
3.
it shall ensure that each decision relating to the attestation of competence is taken by competent persons different from those who carried out the assessment;
4.
it shall have adequate arrangements to safeguard the confidentiality of the information obtained;
5.
it shall identify the conformity assessment activities for which it is competent to perform accreditation, referring, where appropriate, to relevant Community or national legislation and standards;
6.
it shall set up the procedures necessary to ensure efficient management and appropriate internal controls;
7.
it shall have a number of competent personnel at its disposal sufficient for the proper performance of its tasks;
8.
it shall document the duties, responsibilities and authorities of personnel who could affect the quality of the assessment and of the attestation of competence;
9.
it shall establish, implement and maintain procedures for monitoring the performance and competence of the personnel involved;
10.
it shall verify that conformity assessments are carried out in an appropriate manner, meaning that unnecessary burdens are not imposed on undertakings and that due account is taken of the size of an undertaking, the sector in which it operates, its structure, the degree of complexity of the product technology in question and the mass or serial nature of the production process;
11.
it shall publish audited annual accounts prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.