Postal Services Act 2000

58 Power of the Council to require information. E+W+S+N.I.

(1) The Council may serve notice on any person mentioned in subsection (2) requiring him—

(a) to supply to the Council such information specified or described in the notice as the Council may reasonably require in the exercise of its functions, and

(b) to supply it at a time and place and in a form and manner so specified and to a person so specified.

(2) The persons on whom a notice under subsection (1) may be served are—

(a) the Commission,

(b) a universal service provider,

(c) any licence holder under Part II who is not a universal service provider.

(3) In deciding whether to serve a notice under this section and the contents of any such notice, the Council shall have regard to the desirability of minimising the costs of, and any other detriment to, the person on whom the notice may be, or is to be, served.

(4) Subject to subsections (5) to (7), a person on whom a notice is served under this section shall comply with the notice.

(5) The Commission may refuse to supply information required from it by a notice under this section if subsection (7) applies.

(6) A person falling within subsection (2)(b) or (c) may refuse to supply information required from him by a notice under this section if the Commission determines that he need not comply with the notice; and the Commission may so determine if subsection (7) applies.

(7) This subsection applies if the Commission considers that—

(a) the information concerned is not reasonably required by the Council in the exercise of its functions,

(b) the information concerned is of a description specified in an order made by the Secretary of State, or

(c) any other circumstances so specified apply.

(8) The Commission shall, if required by the Council to do so, give a statement to the Council of its reasons for—

(a) a refusal to supply information under this section,

(b) a determination under subsection (6),

and the Council may publish that statement in such manner as it considers appropriate.

(9) No person shall be required under this section—

(a) to produce any documents which he could not be compelled to produce in civil proceedings before the court, or

(b) to supply any information which he could not be compelled to supply in evidence in such proceedings.

(10) If a person makes default in complying with a notice under this section, the court may, on the application of the Council, make such order as the court considers appropriate for requiring the default to be made good.

(11) Any such order may, in particular, provide that all the costs or expenses of and incidental to the application shall be borne—

(a) by the person in default, or

(b) if officers of a company or other association are responsible for its default, by those officers.

(12) In this section, “the court”—

(a) in relation to England and Wales or Northern Ireland, means the High Court, and

(b) in relation to Scotland, means the Court of Session.