# The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme Order 2020, Paragraph 41: General obligations for the verifiers


(1) The verifier must carry out the verification and the activities required by this Part with the aim of providing a verification report that concludes with reasonable assurance that the maritime operator’s annual emissions report is free from material misstatements.
(2) The verifier must plan and perform the verification with an attitude of professional scepticism, recognising that circumstances may exist that cause the information in the maritime operator’s annual emissions report to contain material misstatements.
(3) The verifier must carry out verification in the public interest and be independent of the maritime operator and the regulator.
(4) During the verification, the verifier must assess whether—
(a) the maritime operator’s annual emissions report is complete and meets the requirements laid down in Part 7;
(b) the maritime operator has acted in compliance with the requirements of the emissions monitoring plan issued by the regulator;
(c) the data in the maritime operator’s annual emissions report are free from material misstatements;
(d) information can be provided in support of the maritime operator’s data flow activities, control system and associated procedures to improve the performance of their monitoring and reporting.
(5) For the purpose of sub-paragraph (4)(c), the verifier must obtain clear and objective evidence from the maritime operator to support the reported aggregated maritime emissions, any surrender deduction under paragraph 15(1)(a), and any emissions reduction claim made pursuant to paragraph 37, taking into account all other information provided in the maritime operator’s annual emissions report.
(6) If the verifier discovers that a maritime operator is not complying with paragraphs 13 or 14 that irregularity must be included in the verification report.
(7) If the emissions monitoring plan has not been issued by the regulator, is incomplete or if significant variations have been made during the scheme year which have not been accordingly approved by the regulator, the verifier must advise the maritime operator to apply to the regulator for an emissions monitoring plan, or a variation to its emissions monitoring plan.
(8) Following the issue or variation of the emissions monitoring plan by the regulator, the verifier must continue, repeat or adapt the verification activities accordingly.
(9) If the emissions monitoring plan has not been issued or varied before the issue of the verification report, the verifier must report this in the verification report.

---
Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/1265/schedule/2A/paragraph/41 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/greenhouse-gas-emissions-trading-scheme-order-2020/schedule-2A/paragraph-41
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.