4. General Requirements

4.1 Fairness and Independence

4.1.1 Inspection activities should be conducted fairly.

4.1.2 The consultancy is responsible for the fairness of its inspection activities and should not allow pressure from commercial, financial, or other sources to compromise its fairness.

4.1.3 The consultation should continuously identify risks to its impartiality. These risks may arise from its own activities, various relationships, or from the relationships of its staff. However, not all of these relationships necessarily pose a risk to the impartiality of the consultation.

Note: Relationships that threaten the impartiality of inquiries may be based on the following factors: ownership, governance methods, management, personnel, shared resources, finance, contracts, marketing (including branding), and other incentives such as sales commissions or referrals of new clients.

4.1.4 If the consultation identifies a type of risk related to impartiality, the organization should be able to demonstrate how it eliminates or reduces such risk.

4.1.5 Consultation should include a manager's commitment to fairness.

4.1.6 The degree of independence of the consultation should meet the corresponding conditions required for the services it performs. Based on these conditions, the consultation should comply with the requirements specified in Appendix A, summarized as follows:

a) Consultation on third-party inspection shall meet the requirements of Class A consultation under Chapter A.1 (third-party consultation).

b) The provider's inspection and/or second-party inspection, as an independent and identifiable part of an organization involved in the design, production, supply, installation, use, or maintenance of the inspected product, which only provides inspection services (internal consulting) to its parent entity, should meet the requirements of Chapter A.2, Class B inspection bodies.

(c) Supplier's inspection and/or second-party inspection, and acting as an identifiable but not necessarily independent part of an organization involved in the design, production, supply, installation, use, or maintenance of the inspected product, providing consulting services for the inspection to its parent organization or other entities, should meet the requirements of Category C consulting in Chapter A.3.