The Companies (Northern Ireland) Order 1989

Powers of entry

34.  After Article 16C of the Insider Dealing Order (inserted by Article 33 of this Order) there shall be inserted—

“Powers of entry

16D.— (1) A justice of the peace may issue a warrant under this Article if satisfied by complaint on oath made by or on behalf of the Department that there are reasonable grounds for believing that an offence has been committed under Article 10, 11, 13 or 14 and that there are on any premises documents relevant to the question whether that offence has been committed.

(2) A warrant under this Article shall authorise any constable, together with any other person named in it—

(a) to enter the premises specified in the complaint, using such force as is reasonably necessary for the purpose;

(b) to search the premises and take possession of any documents appearing to be such documents as are mentioned in paragraph (1) or to take, in relation to any such documents, any other steps which may appear to be necessary for preserving them or preventing interference with them;

(c) to take copies of any such documents; and

(d) to require any person named in the warrant to provide an explanation of them or to state where they may be found.

(3) A warrant under this Article shall continue in force until the end of one month after the date on which it is issued.

(4) Any documents of which possession is taken under this Article may be retained—

(a) for a period of 3 months; or

(b) if within that period proceedings to which the documents are relevant are commenced against any person for an offence under Article 10, 11, 13 or 14, until the conclusion of those proceedings.

(5) In this Article “documents” includes information recorded in any form and, in relation to information recorded otherwise than in legible form, references to its production include references to producing a copy of the information in legible form.”.