Inspections
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) routinely inspects industries that deal with chemicals relevant to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). These inspections are announced on short notice and play an essential role in the CWC verification regime. Furthermore, they serve as a confidence-building measure. Depending on its activity, a company may not only have declaration obligations but may also be subject to inspections. In Switzerland, these inspections are carried out by an international OPCW inspection team escorted by the Swiss National Authority which is headed by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO.
A plant site is subject to inspections, if the following thresholds are exceeded:
Table 5: Inspection threshold for chemicals:
Schedule |
Production |
Processing |
Consumtion |
|---|---|---|---|
1 |
> 0 |
> 0 |
> 0 |
2A* |
10 kg |
10 kg |
10 kg |
2A |
1'000 kg |
1'000 kg |
1'000 kg |
2B |
10'000 kg |
10'000 kg |
10'000 kg |
3 |
200 t |
Not subject to inspections |
Not subject to inspections |
DOC |
200 t |
Not subject to inspections |
Not subject to inspections |
PSF |
200 t |
Not subject to inspections |
Not subject to inspections |
The ultimate goal of an inspection is to verify the compliance of the inspected state party with the CWC by inspecting a declared plant site. Thus, the focus is on Switzerland as a signatory state and not on the company. The OPCW inspection consists of physical inspections of the site and scrutiny of declared figures (correctness of declaration). Inspections may include sampling and analysis.
The notification time and the time period of an inspection depends on the relevance of the chemicals to the CWC declared. As soon as SECO is informed about a planned inspection, it will contact the selected company and discusses the sequence of actions.
Attached is useful information pertaining to preparations and proceedings of OPCW industry inspections:
Inspections of Schedule 2 and Schedule 3 plants:
Sequence of action schedule 2 and schedule 3 inspection (PDF,1.72MB)
DOC inspections (Discrete Organic Chemicals):
Sequence of action DOC Inspection (PDF,877KB)