Power to require information etc.E+W+S
46(1)In subsection (1) of section 38 of the 1986 Act (power to require information etc.)—E+W+S
(a)for the words “public gas supplier” there shall be substituted the words “ licence holder ”; and
(b)the words from “but no person” to the end shall cease to have effect.
(2)After that subsection there shall be inserted the following subsections—
“(1A)Where a licence has been or is to be revoked or suspended, or has expired or is about to expire by effluxion of time, and it appears to the Director, having regard to the duties imposed by section 4 or 4A above, to be requisite or expedient to do so for any purpose connected with the revocation, suspension or expiry, the Director may, with the consent of the Secretary of State, by notice signed by him—
(a)require the licence holder to produce, at a time and place specified in the notice, to the Director, or to any person so specified, any records which are specified or described in the notice and are in the licence holder’s custody or under his control; or
(b)require the licence holder to furnish to the Director, or to any person specified in the notice, such information as may be specified or described in the notice, and specify the time, the manner and the form in which any such information is to be furnished.
(1B)No person shall be compelled for any such purpose as is mentioned in subsection (1) or (1A) above to produce any documents or records which he could not be compelled to produce in civil proceedings before the court or, in complying with any requirement for the furnishing of information, to give any information which he could not be compelled to give in evidence in such proceedings.”
(3)In subsections (2) and (4) of that section, after the words “subsection (1)” there shall be inserted the words “ or (1A) ”.