National Assembly for Wales Commissioner for Standards Measure 2009

15 Offences

(1) A person to whom a notice has been given under section 12(1) commits an offence if that person—

(a) refuses or fails without reasonable excuse to attend before the Commissioner as required by the notice,

(b) refuses or fails without reasonable excuse, when attending before the Commissioner as required by the notice, to answer any question concerning the subjects specified in the notice,

(c) refuses or fails without reasonable excuse to produce any document required to be produced by the notice, or

(d) intentionally alters, suppresses, conceals or destroys any such document.

(2) Subsection (1) is subject to section 14.

(3) Any person who, without reasonable excuse, refuses to take an oath or make an affirmation when required to do so under section 13 commits an offence.

(4) If a person charged with an offence under subsection (1)(a), (b) or (c) or under subsection (3) adduces evidence of a reasonable excuse for the refusal or failure, it is for the prosecution to prove that the person did not have such an excuse.

(5) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction—

(a) to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale,

(b) to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months, or

(c) both.

(6) Where an offence under this section which has been committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of—

(a) a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or

(b) any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity,

that person, as well as the body corporate, is guilty of that offence and liable to be proceeded against accordingly.

(7) In subsection (6) “director”, in the case of a body corporate whose affairs are managed by its members, means a member of the body corporate.