Transport Act 1968

99 Inspection of records and other documents

(1) An officer may, on production if so required of his authority, require any person to produce, and permit him to inspect and copy—

(a) any book or register which that person is required by regulations under section 98 of this Act to carry or have in his possession for the purpose of making in it any entry required by those regulations or which is required under those regulations to be carried on any vehicle of which that person is the driver ;

(b) any record, book or register which that person is required by regulations under section 97 or 98 of this Act to preserve ;

(c) if that person is the owner of a vehicle to which this Part of this Act applies, any other document of that person which the officer may reasonably require to inspect for the purpose of ascertaining whether the provisions of this Part of this Act or of regulations made thereunder have been complied with;

and that record, book, register or document shall, if the officer so requires by notice in writing served on that person, be produced at the office of the traffic commissioners or licensing authority specified in the notice within such time (not being less than ten days) from the service of the notice as may be so specified.

(2) An officer may, on production if so required of his authority—

(a) at any time, enter any vehicle to which this Part of this Act applies and inspect that vehicle and any equipment installed in it for the purposes of section 97 of this Act and inspect and copy any record on the vehicle which has been produced by means of that equipment;

(b) at any time which is reasonable having regard to the circumstances of the case, enter any premises on which he has reason to believe that such a vehicle is kept or that any such records, books, registers or other documents as are mentioned in subsection (1) of this section are to be found, and inspect any such vehicle, and inspect and copy any such record, book, register or document, which he finds there.

(3) For the purpose of exercising his powers under subsection (2)(a) and, in respect of a document carried on, or by the driver of, a vehicle, under subsection (1)(a) of this section, an officer may detain the vehicle in question during such time as is required for the exercise of that power.

(4) Any person who—

(a) fails to comply with any requirement under subsection (1) of this section ; or

(b) obstructs an officer in the exercise of his powers under subsection (2) or (3) of this section,

shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £100.

(5) Any person who makes, or causes to be made, any such record as is mentioned in section 97 of this Act or any entry in a book or register kept for the purposes of regulations under section 98 thereof which he knows to be false or, with intent to deceive, alters or causes to be altered any such record or entry shall be liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding £200 ;

(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.

(6) If an officer has reason to believe that an offence under subsection (5) of this section has been committed in respect of any record or document inspected by him under this section, he may seize that record or document; and where a record or document is seized as aforesaid and within six months of the date on which it was seized no person has been charged since that date with an offence in relation to that record or document under that subsection and the record or document has not been returned to the person from whom it was taken, a magistrate's court shall, on an application made for the purpose by that person or by an officer, make such order respecting the disposal of the record or document and award such costs as the justice of the case may require.

(7) Any proceedings in Scotland under subsection (6) of this section shall be taken by way of summary application in the sheriff court; and in the application of that subsection to Scotland references to costs shall be construed as references to expenses.

(8) In this section " officer" means a certifying officer appointed under Part III of the Act of 1960, a public service vehicle examiner, an examiner appointed under Part IV of that Act and any person authorised for the purposes of this section by the traffic commissioners or licensing authority for any area.

(9) The powers conferred by this section on an officer as defined in subsection (8) of this section shall be exercisable also by a police constable, who shall not, if wearing uniform, be required to produce any authority.

(10) In this section references to the inspection and copying of any record produced by means of equipment installed for the purposes of section 97 of this Act in a vehicle include references to the application to the record of any process for eliciting the information recorded thereby and to taking down the information elicited from it.