OpenLegislation

Paragraph 1

Changes not yet applied. Later legislation changes this provision in ways not yet written into the text below:

(1)

For the purposes—

(a)

of securing compliance with any order made or direction given under the relevant section of this Act by or on behalf of a competent authority, or

(b)

of verifying any estimates, returns or information furnished to a competent authority in connection with the relevant section of this Act or any order made or direction given thereunder,

an officer of a competent authority duly authorised in that behalf shall have power, on producing (if required to do so) evidence of his authority, to require any person carrying on an undertaking or employed in connection with an undertaking to produce to the officer forthwith any documents relating to the undertaking which the officer may reasonably require for the purposes set out above in this paragraph.

(2)

The power conferred by this paragraph to require any person to produce documents shall include power—

(a)

if the documents are produced—

(i)

to take copies of them or extracts from them, and

(ii)

to require that person, or, where that person is a body corporate, any other person who is a present or past officer of, or is employed by, the body corporate, to provide an explanation of any of them,

(b)

if the documents are not produced, to require the person who was required to produce them to state, to the best of his knowledge and belief, where they are.

(3)

If any requirement to produce documents or provide an explanation or make a statement which is imposed by virtue of this paragraph is not complied with, the person on whom the requirement was so imposed shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to a fine not exceeding F1level 3 on the standard scale, or to both:

Provided that where a person is charged with an offence under this sub-paragraph in respect of a requirement to produce any documents, it shall be a defence to prove that they were not in his possession or under his control and that it was not reasonably practicable for him to comply with the requirements.

Annotations

Textual amendments

F1

Words substituted by virtue of (E.W.) Criminal Justice Act 1982 (c.48, SIF 39:1), ss. 38, 46, (S.) Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1975 (c.21, SIF 39:1), ss. 289F, 289G and (N.I.) by S.I. 1984/703 (N.I. 3), arts. 5, 6