Section 3 - Requirement for parents etc. to provide information
10.The effect of this section is that anyone who is currently claiming funding, or claiming it for the first time, and so has to make or is making a declaration under section 1, may be required to provide information and documents specified in the regulations, either to the Welsh Ministers or to someone (for instance a scheme administrator) providing services to the Welsh Ministers.
11.The regulations may also make provision for a person who provides false or misleading information to be subject to a financial penalty. “False or misleading” in this context means false or misleading in a material particular. This means, in practice, that a person would only be liable to a penalty if the false or misleading information provided was such as to have a bearing on whether or not a person would be eligible for the offer, such as details of their earnings, the age of the child etc. Section 3(5) deals with the interrelationship between a penalty under this section, and proceedings for an offence, say for obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception. It provides that a person who has been convicted of an offence may not also be subjected to a penalty in respect of the same circumstances.
12.Section 3(6) provides that the maximum amount of any financial penalty that can be levied in regulations made under section 2 is £3,000. The Welsh Ministers have power to amend this maximum amount in regulations (see section 11 of the Act).
