(1)The Scottish Ministers may, for a purpose mentioned in subsection (2), by notice in writing require a person, other than an applicant, to provide the Scottish Ministers on or before a specified date with—
(a)specified information, documents, objects, or other items of evidence,
(b)evidence in the form of a written statement.
(2)The purposes referred to in subsection (1) are the determination of any matter by—
(a)a panel appointed under section 35 to determine an application,
(b)a review panel appointed under section 55 to conduct a review,
(c)a reconsideration panel appointed under section 75 to reconsider a determination.
(3)A person to whom a notice under subsection (1) is given may, before the end of the period of 4 weeks beginning with the date on which the notice was received by the person, make a claim to the Scottish Ministers that—
(a)the person is unable to comply with the notice, or
(b)it is not reasonable in all the circumstances to require the person to comply with the notice.
(4)The Scottish Ministers must, as soon as reasonably practicable after receiving a claim made under subsection (3), provide the claim, and any information accompanying it, to Redress Scotland.
(5)Where a claim is made under subsection (3), Redress Scotland may confirm, revoke or vary the notice to which the claim relates.
(6)A person who is required by a notice to provide documents must do so in a redacted form if—
(a)the documents contain information about another person which is irrelevant to the determination of the application to which the notice relates, and
(b)the disclosure of that information would breach an obligation of confidence.
(7)A notice does not have effect to the extent that—
(a)complying with the notice would involve the disclosure of information which would contravene the data protection legislation, or
(b)the person to whom the notice applies would be entitled to refuse to comply with the notice in or for the purposes of proceedings in a court in Scotland.
(8)In this section, “the data protection legislation” has the meaning given by section 3(9) of the Data Protection Act 2018.