Section 15: Civil Sanctions
68.This section provides a non-criminal sanction to encourage compliance with section 14. It allows an authority to serve an enforcement notice if a request under section 14 to provide information is not complied with. The enforcement notice must restate what information is required and inform the recipient that the authority may impose a penalty if they do not provide the information. It must also state that representations can be made (subsections (1) and (2)).
69.If the information is not received within a period specified in the enforcement notice (which must be at least 28 days) then the authority may impose a penalty of up to £1000. The authority must have regard to any representations and any partial compliance with the information request when determining whether to impose a penalty and how big it should be. The penalty notice must say why the penalty was imposed, and contain information about how to appeal.
70.A right of appeal is to be provided by regulations made by the Minister under this section and the first set of regulations must be made in accordance with the affirmative resolution procedure. The penalty is recoverable as a debt. The Minister has the power to change the maximum penalty, but only in order to reflect the value of money. Subsection (10) defines “the Minister” for the purposes of this section as the Secretary of State for England and the Welsh Ministers for Wales.
