The Feedingstuffs (Zootechnical Products) Regulations 1998

Powers of authorised persons E+W+S

67.—(1) An authorised person may at all reasonable times and on producing, if so required, some duly authenticated document showing his authority, exercise the powers specified in this regulation for the purposes of—

(a) carrying out any official checks, and

(b) ascertaining whether an offence under regulation 68 has been or is being committed.

(2) An authorised person shall have the right to enter—

(a) any premises on which he has reasonable cause to believe that a zootechnical product has been manufactured or is being kept for the purpose of being put into circulation, placed on the market, marketed, supplied, incorporated or used, and

(b) any premises (not being premises used only as a dwelling) on which he has reasonable cause to believe that there is any such product which the occupier of the premises has in his possession.

(3) An authorised person entering any premises by virtue of this regulation may take with him such other persons and such equipment as may appear to him to be necessary for the purposes mentioned in sub-paragraphs (a) and (b) of paragraph (1).

(4) An authorised person shall have the right to inspect—

(a) any substance or article appearing to him to be a zootechnical product;

(b) any article appearing to him to be a container or package used or intended to be used to wrap, package or store any such product, or to be a label used or intended to be used in connection with any such product; or

(c) any plant or equipment appearing to him to be used, or intended to be used, in connection with the manufacture of any zootechnical product and any process of manufacture of such a product, and the means employed, at any stage in the process of manufacture, for testing the product after it has been subject to those processes.

(5) An authorised person shall have the right to take a sample of—

(a) a substance or article used, or intended to be used, in the manufacture of a zootechnical product;

(b) a product appearing to him to be a zootechnical product manufactured, wrapped, packaged, stored, circulated, marketed or supplied, or intended to be circulated, marketed or supplied; or

(c) a product appearing to him to be a zootechnical product, used, or intended to be used, for the purpose of animal feeding.

(6) An authorised person shall have the right—

(a) to require any person carrying on a business which consists of or includes the activities of manufacture, wrapping, packaging, storage, circulation, marketing, supply or use of zootechnical products, and any person employed in connection with such a business, to produce any record (in whatever form it is held) relating to those activities which is in his possession or under his control, and

(b) to inspect and take copies of a record, or of an entry in a record, produced in pursuance of the preceding sub-paragraph.

(7) An authorised person exercising the power conferred by paragraph (6) in respect of a record held by means of a computer—

(a) shall be entitled at any reasonable time to have access to, and inspect and check the operation of, any computer and associated apparatus or material which is or has been in use in connection with the record in question;

(b) may require—

(i) the person by whom or on whose behalf the computer is or has been so used, or

(ii) any person having charge of, or otherwise concerned with the operation of, the computer, apparatus or material, to afford the authorised person such reasonable assistance as he may require for the purpose; and

(c) may require the record, or an extract from the record, to be produced in a form in which it may be taken away.

(8) An authorised person shall have the right to seize and detain a product which he has reason to believe to be a zootechnical product in relation to which, or by means of which, an offence under these Regulations is being or has been committed, and any record which he has reasonable cause to believe to be a record which may be required as evidence in proceedings under these Regulations.

(9) In this regulation, “premises" includes any land, vehicle, vessel, aircraft or hovercraft.