Insurance Companies Act 1982

44Power to obtain information and require production of documents

(1)The Secretary of State may require a company to furnish him, at specified times or intervals, with information about specified matters being, if he so requires, information verified in a specified manner.

(2)The Secretary of State may—

(a)require a company to produce, at such time and place as he may specify, such books or papers as he may specify; or

(b)authorise any person, on producing (if required so to do) evidence of his authority, to require a company to produce to him forthwith any books or papers which that person may specify.

(3)Where by virtue of subsection (2) above the Secretary of State or a person authorised by him has power to require the production of any books or papers from any company. the Secretary of State or that person shall have the like power to require production of those books or papers from any person who appears to him to be in possession of them; but where any person from whom such production is required claims a hen on books or papers produced by him, the production shall be without prejudice to the lien.

(4)Any power conferred by or by virtue of subsections (2) and (3) above to require a company or other person to produce books or papers shall include power—

(a)if the books or papers are produced—

(i)to take copies of them or extracts from them; and

(ii)to require that person, or any other person who is a present or past director, controller or auditor of, or is or was at any time employed by, the company in question, to provide an explanation of any of them;

(b)if the books or papers are not produced, to require the person who was required to produce them to state, to the best of his knowledge and belief, where they are.

(5)A statement made by a person in compliance with a requirement imposed by virtue of this section may be used in evidence against him.

(6)In this section "books or papers" includes accounts, deeds, writings and documents.