44 Power to obtain information and require production of documents.U.K.
(1)The Secretary of State may require a company to furnish him, at specified times or intervals, with information about specified matters being, if he so requires, information verified in a specified manner.
(2)The Secretary of State may—
(a)require a company to produce, at such time and place as he may specify, such [documents] as he may specify; or
(b)authorise any person, on producing (if required so to do) evidence of his authority, to require a company to produce to him forthwith any [documents] which that person may specify.
(3)Where by virtue of subsection (2) above the Secretary of State or a person authorised by him has power to require the production of any [documents] from any company, the Secretary of State or that person shall have the like power to require production of those [documents] from any person who appears to him to be in possession of them; but where any person from whom such production is required claims a lien on [documents] produced by him, the production shall be without prejudice to the lien.
(4)Any power conferred by or by virtue of subsections (2) and (3) above to require a company or other person to produce [documents] shall include power—
(a)if the [documents] are produced—
(i)to take copies of them or extracts from them; and
(ii)to require that person, or any other person who is a present or past director, controller or auditor of, or is or was at any time employed by, the company in question, to provide an explanation of any of them;
(b)if the [documents] are not produced, to require the person who was required to produce them to state, to the best of his knowledge and belief, where they are.
(5)A statement made by a person in compliance with a requirement imposed by virtue of this section may be used in evidence against him.
[(6)In this section “document” includes information recorded in any form; and, in relation to information recorded otherwise than in legible form, the power to require its production includes power to require the production of a copy of the information in legible form.]