Section 22 Officers
The Secretary of State, with the approval of the Minister for the Civil Service as to numbers and salaries, may appoint officers to act for the purposes of Part III and this Part of this Act, and may, in lieu of or in addition to appointing any officers under this section, arrange with any government department that officers of that department shall act for the said purposes.
Every officer acting for the purposes of Part III and this Part of this Act shall be furnished by the Secretary of State with a certificate of his appointment or authority so to act, and, when so acting, shall, if so required by any person affected, produce the certificate to him.
An officer acting for the purposes of Part III and this Part of this Act shall have power for the performance of his duties—
to require the production of wages sheets or other records of wages kept by an employer, and records of payments made to homeworkers by persons giving out work, and any other such records as are required by this Act to be kept by employers, and to inspect and examine those sheets or records and copy any material part thereof;
to require the production of any licence or certificate granted under the 1968 c. 73.Transport Act 1968, and of any records kept in pursuance of Part VI of the Transport Act 1968 or of the applicable Community rules within the meaning of the said Part VI, and to examine any such licence, certificate or records and copy it or them or any material part thereof;
to require any person giving out work and any home-worker to give any information which it is in his power to give with respect to the names and addresses of the persons to whom the work is given out or from whom the work is received, as the case may be, and with respect to the payments to be made for the work ;
at all reasonable times to enter any premises at which any employer to whom an order under section 14 above applies carries on his business (including any place used, in connection with that business, for giving out work to homeworkers and any premises which the officer has reasonable cause to believe to be used by or by arrangement with the employer to provide living accommodation for workers);
to inspect and copy any material part of any list of home-workers kept by an employer or person giving out work to homeworkers;
to examine, either alone or in the presence of any other person, as he thinks fit, with respect to any matters under Part III or this Part of this Act, any person whom he has reasonable cause to believe to be or to have been a worker to whom an order under section 14 above applies or applied or the employer of any such person or a servant or agent of the employer employed in the employer's business, and to require every such person to be so examined, and to sign a declaration of the truth of the matters in respect of which he is so examined:
Provided that no person shall be required under paragraph (f) above to give any information tending to criminate himself or, in the case of a person who is married, his or her wife or husband.
In England or Wales, an officer acting for the purposes of Part III and this Part of this Act may institute proceedings for any offence under this Act and may, although not of counsel or a solicitor, conduct any such proceedings:
Provided that an officer may not conduct proceedings for an offence under section 24 below unless he instituted those proceedings.
An officer acting for the purposes of Part III and this Part of this Act who is authorised in that behalf by general or special directions of the Secretary of State may, if it appears to him that a sum is due from an employer to a worker on account of the payment to him of remuneration less than the statutory minimum remuneration, institute on behalf of and in the name of that worker civil proceedings for the recovery of that sum and in any such proceedings the court may make an order for the payment of costs by the officer as if he were a party to the proceedings.
The power given by this subsection for the recovery of sums due from an employer to a worker shall not be in derogation of any right of the worker to recover such sums by civil proceedings.
Any person who obstructs an officer acting for the purposes of Part III and this Part of this Act in the exercise of any power conferred by this section, or fails to comply with any requirement of such an officer made in the exercise of any such power, shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £100:
Provided that it shall be a defence for a person charged under this subsection with failing to comply with a requirement to prove that it was not reasonably practicable to comply therewith.