Article 5 Access to documents and information

(1)

An accounting authority—

(a)

shall have a right of access at all reasonable times to all documents which—

(i)

are in the possession, or under the control of, a council or joint board; and

(ii)

appear to the accounting authority to be needed for the purpose of discharging functions under article 3 or 4 above; and

(b)

may require—

(i)

any such person as is mentioned in article 3(3)(b) above; or

(ii)

any person who is or has been an officer or member of any council or joint board,

to give to the accounting authority any such information as they think necessary for that purpose.

(2)

It shall be the duty of every council or joint board to take such steps on or after the transfer date as may be reasonably required of them by an accounting authority to enable the accounts of a demitting authority to be closed, and a successor authority of a disaggregating authority shall be entitled to receive from the accounting authority of that disaggregating authority payment of the reasonable costs incurred in complying with their duty under this paragraph.

(3)

Where a document includes any record of information and that record is not in legible form, the rights conferred by paragraph (1) and article 3(3) above include the right to require the information to be made available in legible form for inspection and copying and to require copies of it in that form to be delivered.