Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000

146 Supervisory powers of Commission

(1) The Commission may by notice require the relevant person in the case of any supervised organisation or individual (or former supervised organisation or individual)—

(a) to produce, for inspection by the Commission or a person authorised by the Commission, any such books, documents or other records relating to the income and expenditure of the organisation or individual as the Commission may reasonably require for the purposes of the carrying out by them of their functions, or

(b) to furnish the Commission, or a person authorised by the Commission, with such information or explanation relating to the income and expenditure of the organisation or individual as the Commission may reasonably so require,

and to do so within such reasonable time as is specified in the notice.

(2) The Commission, or a person authorised by the Commission, may—

(a) make copies of, or records of any information contained in, any books, documents or other records produced under subsection (1)(a);

(b) make copies or records of any information or explanation furnished under subsection (1)(b).

(3) A person authorised in writing by the Commission may, for the purposes of the carrying out by the Commission of their functions, enter at any reasonable time premises occupied by a supervised organisation or individual and having entered any such premises may—

(a) inspect any books, documents or other records relating to the income and expenditure of the organisation or individual, and

(b) make copies of, or records of any information contained in, any such books, documents or other records.

(4) Where any such records as are mentioned in subsection (1) or (3) are kept in electronic form, then—

(a) the power of the Commission under subsection (1) to require any such records to be produced for inspection includes power to require a copy of the records to be made available for inspection in legible form (and subsection (2)(a) shall accordingly apply in relation to any copy so made available); and

(b) the power of any person (“the inspector”) under subsection (3) to inspect any such records includes power to require any person on the premises in question to give the inspector such assistance as he may reasonably require to enable him—

(i) to inspect and make copies of the records in legible form or to make records of information contained in them, or

(ii) 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 keeping of the records.

(5) A person commits an offence if he fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with any requirement imposed under this section.

(6) A person commits an offence if he intentionally obstructs a person authorised as mentioned in subsection (3) in the carrying out of that person’s functions under that subsection.

(7) Subject to subsection (8), subsection (1) shall apply in relation to—

(a) a regulated donee (or former regulated donee), or

(b) a person who is (or has been) a candidate at an election (other than a local government election in Scotland) or the election agent for such a candidate,

as it applies to a supervised organisation or individual (or former supervised organisation or individual); and subsections (2), (4) and (5) apply accordingly.

(8) The powers conferred by virtue of subsection (7) may only be exercised by the Commission (or, as the case may be, by a person authorised by them) for or in connection with obtaining—

(a) such information or explanations relating to the income and expenditure of regulated donees in connection with their political activities as the Commission reasonably require for the purpose of monitoring compliance on the part of regulated donees with the requirements imposed by or by virtue of Schedule 7, or

(b) such information or explanations relating to the income and expenditure of candidates within paragraph (b) of that subsection and their election agents as the Commission reasonably require for the purpose of monitoring compliance on the part of such candidates and their agents with restrictions and other requirements falling within section 145(1)(b),

as the case may be.

(9) In this section—

• “regulated donee” and “political activities”, in relation to a regulated donee, each have the same meaning as in Schedule 7;

• “relevant person”, in relation to a supervised organisation or individual, means—

  (a)

  in the case of an organisation, any person who is or has been the treasurer or another officer of the organisation, and

  (b)

  in the case of an individual, that individual;

• “supervised organisation or individual” means—

  (a)

  a registered party or (in the case of such a party with accounting units) the central organisation of the party or any of its accounting units,

  (b)

  a recognised third party (within the meaning of Part VI), or

  (c)

  a permitted participant (within the meaning of Part VII).