Regulation 67 Investigations by the Director General: power to serve an information notice

(1)

The Director General may serve upon any person a notice (an “information notice”) requiring the person to provide the Director General with information that the Director General reasonably requires for the purposes of an investigation in accordance with regulation 42.

(2)

But an information notice must not require a person—

(a)

to provide information that might incriminate the person;

(b)

to provide an item subject to legal privilege within the meaning given by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984^f1 (see section 10 of that Act);

(c)

to make any disclosure that would be prohibited by Parts 1 to 7 or Chapter 1 of Part 9 of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016^f2;

(d)

to provide information that was provided to the person by, or by an agency of, the government of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom where that government does not consent to the disclosure of the information.

(3)

An information notice must not require a postal operator or telecommunications operator to provide communications data.

(4)

An information notice must—

(a)

specify or describe the information that is required by the Director General and the form in which it must be provided;

(b)

specify the period within which the information must be provided;

(c)

give details of the right of appeal against the information notice under regulation 69 (1).

(5)

The period specified under paragraph (4)(b) must not end before the end of the period within which an appeal can be brought against the notice and, if such an appeal is brought, the information need not be provided pending the determination or withdrawal of the appeal.

(6)

The Director General may cancel an information notice by written notice to the person on whom it was served.

(7)

In these Regulations—

“communications data” has the meaning given in section 261 of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016^f3;
“postal operator” has the meaning given in section 262 of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016;
“telecommunications operator” has the meaning given in section 261 of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016.

Annotations

Footnotes

f1: 1984 c. 60.
f2: 2016 c. 25. Part 1 was amended by S.I. 2017/730, Schedule 19 to the Data Protection Act 2018 (c. 12), S.I. 2018/1123, S.I. 2019/742, S.I. 2022/500, S.I. 2023/149, section 352(4) of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2013 (c. 30) and sections 6, 12 and 14 of the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Act 2024 (c. 9). Part 2 was amended by S.I. 2018/1310, S.I. 2019/742, Schedule 5 to the Armed Forces Act 2021 (c. 35) and section 22 of the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Act 2024. Part 3 was amended by S.I. 2018/1123, S.I. 2019/742, S.I. 2019/939 and sections 12 to 15 of the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Act 2024. Part 4 was amended by S.I. 2018/1123, sections 16 to 21 of the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Act 2024 and S.I. 2026/386. Part 5 was amended by Schedule 9 to the Policing and Crime Act 2017 (c. 3), S.I. 2019/742, Schedule 4 to the Armed Forces Act 2021 and sections 23 to 26 of the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Act 2024. Part 6 was amended by section 27 of the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Act 2024. Part 7 was amended by Schedule 19 to the Data Protection Act 2018, section 1 of the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Act 2024 and section 90(10) of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (c. 18). Chapter 1 of Part 9 was amended by sections 18 and 19 of the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Act 2024 and S.I. 2026/386.
f3: Section 261 was amended by section 13(2) and (3) and 19(2) of the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Act 2024 (c. 9).