Special provision on account of expense as to website use
171.—(1) Where the court is satisfied that the expense of sending notices in accordance with rule 165 would, on account of the number of persons entitled to receive them, be disproportionate to the benefit of sending notices in accordance with that rule, it may order that the requirement to give, deliver or send a relevant document to any person may (other than in a case where personal service is required) be satisfied by the administrator sending each of those persons a notice—
(a)stating that all relevant documents will be made available for viewing and downloading on a website;
(b)specifying the address of that website together with any password necessary to view and download the document from that site; and
(c)containing a statement that the person to whom the notice is given, delivered or sent may at any time request that hard copies of all, or specific, relevant documents are sent to that person, and specifying a telephone number, email address and postal address which may be used to make that request.
(2) A document to which this rule relates must—
(a)be available on the website for a period of not less than 12 months from the date when it was first made available on the website or, if later, from the date upon which the notice was sent; and
(b)be in such a format as to enable it to be downloaded from the website within a reasonable time of an electronic request being made for it to be downloaded.
(3) Where hard copies of relevant documents have been requested, they must be sent by the administrator—
(a)within 5 business days of the receipt by the administrator of the request to be sent hard copies, in the case of relevant documents first appearing on the website before the request was received; or
(b)within 5 business days from the date a relevant document first appears on the website, in all other cases.
(4) An administrator must not require a person making a request under paragraph (3) to pay a fee for the supply of the document.
(5) Where a relevant document is given, delivered or sent to a person by means of a website in accordance with this rule, it is deemed to have been delivered—
(a)when the relevant document was first made available on the website; or
(b)if later, when the notice under paragraph (1) was delivered to that person.
(6) In this rule a “relevant document” means any document which the administrator is first required to give, deliver or send to any person after the court has made an order under paragraph (1).