The Horse Passports Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010

Powers of entry

18.—(1) An authorised officer may, on producing a duly authenticated authorisation document, at all reasonable hours, enter any premises (excluding any premises not containing any horse and used only as a dwelling) for the purpose of administering and enforcing these Regulations; and in this regulation “premises” includes any vehicle or container.

(2) An authorised officer may—

(a) require the production of a passport and mark it as necessary;

(b) carry out any inquiries;

(c) have access to, and inspect and copy any records (in whatever form they are held) relevant to these Regulations;

(d) remove such records to enable them to be copied;

(e) have access to, inspect and check the operation of any computer and any associated apparatus or material that is or has been in use in connection with the records, and for this purpose may require any person having charge of, or otherwise concerned with the operation of the computer, apparatus or material to afford the authorised officer such assistance as may reasonably be required and, where records are kept by means of computer, may require the records to be produced in a form in which they may be taken away;

(f) where an authorised officer has entered any premises and it is not reasonably practicable to determine whether documents on those premises are relevant to these Regulations, the authorised officer may seize them to ascertain whether or not they are relevant;

(g) mark any horse or other thing for identification purposes; and

(h) be accompanied by—

(i) such other persons as the authorised officer considers necessary; and

(ii) any representative of the European Commission acting for the purpose of the enforcement of a Community obligation.

(3) It is an offence to deface, obliterate or remove any mark applied under paragraph (2) except under the written authority of an authorised officer.

(4) In this regulation “authorised officer” means any person authorised by the Department to enforce these Regulations.