Powers of authorised officers
5.—(1) An authorised officer shall, on producing, if required to do so, a duly authenticated document showing his authority, have the power at all reasonable hours to enter any premises for the purposes of ascertaining whether there is or has been on the premises any breach of animal and public health requirements of legislation relating to the importation of products of animal origin to which these Regulations apply or whether there are any products on the premises in respect of which an offence may have been committed under these Regulations.
(2) In enforcing these Regulations an authorised officer shall have the power to—
(a)carry out inspections of premises, plant and equipment used for or relating to products of animal origin, cleaning and maintenance products, procedures used for the production and processing of products of animal origin and the marking, labelling or presentation of those products;
(b)carry out checks on whether staff at any premises comply with the requirements of any legislation relating to animal and public health;
(c)take samples to establish whether or not these Regulations are being complied with and by notice served on the person in charge of any products of animal origin detain those products pending the analysis of those samples;
(d)examine documentary or computer material relevant to his powers under this regulation;
(e)take with him a representative of the European Commission who is acting as an inspector for the purposes of Directives 89/662 or 90/675 or a representative of the New Zealand authorities acting as an inspector under the New Zealand Equivalence Agreement.
(3) If a justice of the peace, on sworn information in writing, is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for the entry into any premises for any of the purposes of this regulation and either—
(a)that admission to the premises has been refused, or a refusal is reasonably apprehended, and that notice of the intention to apply for admission has been given to the occupier; or
(b)that an application for admission, or the giving of such a notice, would defeat the object of the entry, or that the case is one of urgency, or that the premises are unoccupied or the occupier temporarily absent,
the justice may by warrant signed by him, and valid for one month, authorise the authorised officer to enter the premises, if need be by reasonable force.
(4) In this regulation “premises” includes any place, installation, vehicle, container, ship, vessel, boat, craft, hovercraft or aircraft.
(5) Paragraph (2) shall apply to a representative of the New Zealand authorities acting as an inspector under the New Zealand Equivalence Agreement in the same way as it applies to an authorised officer.