500.This section ensures that the AGW, when examining any accounts of the Assembly Commission, has a right of access to documents and information relating to the accounts of any subsidiary it may have. It also gives the AGW a right to any assistance or explanation which the AGW reasonably thinks is necessary from any person holding or accountable for such a document (subsection (1)).
501.In this context, a “subsidiary of the Assembly Commission” means (subsection (4)):
a body corporate (such as a company) or other undertaking (as defined in section 259(1) of the Companies Act 1985 (c.6), in relation to which the Assembly Commission is a parent undertaking for the purpose of section 258 of that Act;
a trust of which the Assembly Commission is settlor; or
a charitable institution of which the Assembly Commission is founder, but which is neither a body corporate nor a trust (subsection (4)).
502.Subsection (2) gives the Treasury a power to direct a subsidiary of the Assembly Commission to include additional information in its accounts. Such a direction would override any prohibition on the inclusion, in accounts of that type, of that information (subsection (3)). Legislative rules on company or charity accounts may be relevant here.