# The Feeding Stuffs (Establishments and Intermediaries) Regulations 1999, Regulation 98: Powers of authorised persons


(1) An authorised person may exercise the powers specified in this regulation for the purposes of—
(a) carrying out official checks, and
(b) ascertaining whether an offence under regulation 107(a) or (b) has been or is being committed.
(2) An authorised person shall have the right at all reasonable times, and on producing, if requested to do so, some duly authenticated document showing his authority, to enter—
(a) any premises on which he has reasonable cause to believe that a controlled product has been, or is being, manufactured or produced, or is being kept for the purpose of being put into circulation, incorporated in another product or used, and
(b) any premises (not being premises appearing to be used only as a dwelling) on which he has reasonable cause to believe that there is any controlled product which the occupier of the premises has in his possession or under his control.
(3) If a justice of the peace, on sworn information in writing, is satisfied that there is reasonable ground for entry into any such premises as are mentioned in paragraph (2), for any such purpose as is mentioned in paragraph (1), and either—
(a) that admission to the premises has been refused, or a refusal is apprehended, and that notice of the intention to apply for a warrant has been given to the occupier; or
(b) that an application for admission, or the giving of such a notice, would defeat the object of the entry, or that the case is one of urgency, or that the premises are unoccupied or the occupier temporarily absent,
the justice may by warrant signed by him authorise the authorised officer to enter the premises, if need be by reasonable force.
(4) Every warrant granted under this regulation shall continue in force for a period of one month.
(5) In the application of paragraph (3)—
(a) to Scotland, any reference to a justice of the peace includes a reference to the sheriff and to a magistrate, and
(b) to Northern Ireland, the reference to a sworn information in writing includes a reference to a sworn complaint in writing.
(6) An authorised person entering premises by virtue of this regulation, or of a warrant issued under it, may take with him such other persons and such equipment as may appear to him to be necessary for the purposes mentioned in sub-paragraphs (a) and (b) of paragraph (1), and on leaving any unoccupied premises which he has entered by virtue of such a warrant, shall leave them as effectively secured against unauthorised entry as he found them.
(7) An authorised person entering premises by virtue of this regulation, or of a warrant issued under it, shall have the right to inspect—
(a) any material appearing to him to be a controlled product,
(b) any article appearing to him to be a container or package used or intended to be used to wrap, package or store any such product, or to be a label used or intended to be used in connection with any such product, or
(c) any plant or equipment appearing to him to be used, or intended to be used, in connection with the manufacture or production of a controlled product, and any process of manufacture or production of such a product, and any means employed, at any stage in the process of manufacture or production, for testing the product after it has been subject to those processes.
(8) Subject to paragraph (9), an authorised person entering premises by virtue of this regulation, or of a warrant issued under it, shall have the right to take on those premises, and prepare, a sample of—
(a) any material appearing to him to be a controlled product manufactured, produced, wrapped, packaged, stored or put into circulation, or intended to be put into circulation; or
(b) any material appearing to him to be a controlled product used, or intended to be used, for the purpose of animal feeding,
in the like manner as that prescribed—
(i) in the case of Great Britain, in Part II of Schedule 1 to the Feeding Stuffs (Sampling and Analysis) Regulations 1999, or
(ii) in the case of Northern Ireland, in Part II of Schedule 1 to the Feeding Stuffs (Sampling and Analysis) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999,
and paragraph 10 of Part II of Schedule 1 to the Regulations concerned shall have effect for the purposes of the certificate referred to in regulations 102 and 104(2).
(9) For the purposes of this Part of these Regulations, the provisions of regulation 3 and Schedule 1 to the Feeding Stuffs (Sampling and Analysis) Regulations 1999 or, as the case may be, of regulation 3 and Schedule 1 to the Feeding Stuffs (Sampling and Analysis) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999, shall have effect as if—
(a) for all references to “feeding stuff” or to “feeding stuffs” there were substituted references to “controlled product” or “controlled products” respectively, and
(b) in paragraph 1 of Part II of Schedule 1 to the Regulations concerned, the expression “, except where section 68(2)(b) of the Act applies” were omitted.
(10) Where, for the purpose of taking a sample pursuant to paragraph (8), an authorised person takes some of it from each of one or more containers of the product, which are exposed for sale by retail, and none of which weighs more than six kilograms, the owner of the container or containers may require the authorised person to purchase the container or containers on behalf of the competent body for whom he acts.
(11) An authorised person entering premises by virtue of this regulation, or of a warrant issued under it, shall have the right—
(a) to require any person carrying on, or appearing to be carrying on, a business which consists of or includes the manufacture, production, wrapping, packaging, storage, putting into circulation, or use of a controlled product, or any person employed in connection with such a business, to produce any record (in whatever form it is held) relating to or arising out of the exercise in the course of that business of any such activity, and which is in his possession or under his control, and
(b) to inspect and take copies of any record, or of any entry in any record, produced in pursuance of the preceding sub-paragraph.
(12) An authorised person exercising the power conferred by paragraph (11) in respect of a record held by means of a computer—
(a) shall be entitled at any reasonable time to have access to, and inspect and check the operation of, any computer and associated apparatus or material which is or has been, or which it appears is or has been, in use in connection with the record in question;
(b) may require—
(i) the person by whom or on whose behalf the computer is or has been so used, or
(ii) any person having charge of, or otherwise concerned with the operation of, the computer, apparatus or material,
to afford the authorised person such reasonable assistance as he may require for that purpose; and
(c) may require the record, or an extract from the record, to be produced in a form in which it may be taken away.
(13) An authorised person entering premises by virtue of this regulation, or of a warrant issued under it, shall have the right to seize and detain any product which he has reasonable cause to believe to be a controlled product in relation to which, or by means of which, it appears that an offence under these Regulations is being or has been committed, and any record which he has reasonable cause to believe to be a record which may be required as evidence in proceedings under these Regulations.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/1872/regulation/98 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/feeding-stuffs-establishments-and-intermediaries-regulations-1999/regulation-98
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.