(1)Any person authorised in that behalf by the Minister concerned may, subject to the production if requested of his authority, enter on any premises occupied for the purposes of his business by an employer whose business or any part thereof is for the time being registered under section 7(1) of this Act as an establishment such as is mentioned in section 1(2) or 2(2) of this Act, or who has applied for his business or any part thereof to be so registered, or occupied by a charity who have claimed a payment under section 5 of this Act, and—
(a)examine and make copies of or extracts from any such records as are mentioned in section 7(1)(b) or, as the case may be, section 5(2) of this Act and any other records relating to persons in employment in, or carried out from, the establishment so registered or proposed for registration or, as the case may be, to persons employed by the charity; and
(b)require any person on those premises to furnish to the person authorised as aforesaid such information as he may reasonably require as to the activities carried on in or from that establishment or, as the case may be, by that charity.
(2)Any person who, for the purpose of obtaining any payment under this Act—
(a)knowingly makes a false statement or false representation ; or
(b)produces or furnishes, or causes or knowingly allows to be produced or furnished, any document or information which he knows to be false in a material particular; or
(c)recklessly makes any statement or representation, or furnishes any information, which is false in a material particular; or
(d)withholds any material information,
shall be liable—
(i)on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or to both ;
(ii)on conviction on indictment, to a fine, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to both.
(3)If any person—
(a)wilfully delays or obstructs a person authorised under subsection (1) of this section in the exercise of his powers under that subsection; or
(b)refuses or neglects to answer any question or to furnish any information or to produce any document when required to do so under that subsection,
he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding ten pounds in the case of a first offence under this subsection and not exceeding fifty pounds in the case of a second or subsequent such offence:
Provided that no person shall be required under this subsection to answer any question or give any evidence if the answer or evidence would tend to incriminate him.
(4)Where an offence under subsection (2) or (3) of this section committed by a company is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the company or any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the company shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
(5)Where any sum is paid under this Act to any person not entitled thereto, that sum shall be recoverable as a debt due to the Crown unless the sum was paid under a mistake of law.