234 Failure to provide information to PPP arbiter.E+W+S
This section has no associated Explanatory Notes
(1)If a person fails to comply with a request under section 233(1) above, the PPP arbiter may serve a notice on that person requiring him—
(a)to produce to the PPP arbiter, at a time and place specified in the notice, any documents which are specified or described in the notice and are in his custody or under his control; or
(b)to provide to the PPP arbiter, at a time and place and in the form and manner specified in the notice, such information as may be specified or described in the notice.
(2)No person shall be required under this section—
(a)to produce any documents which he could not be compelled to produce in civil proceedings in the court; or
(b)in complying with any requirement for the provision of information, to provide any information which he could not be compelled to give in evidence in any such proceedings.
(3)A person who intentionally alters, suppresses or destroys any document which he has been required to produce by a notice under subsection (1) above is guilty of an offence and liable—
(a)on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; or
(b)on conviction on indictment, to a fine.
(4)If a person makes default in complying with a notice under subsection (1) above, the court may, on the application of the PPP arbiter, make such order as the court thinks fit for requiring the default to be made good.
(5)Any such order may provide that all the costs or expenses of and incidental to the application shall be borne by the person in default or by any officers of a company or other association who are responsible for its default.
(6)In this section—
(a)any reference to the production of a document includes a reference to the production of a legible and intelligible copy of information recorded otherwise than in legible form; and
(b)the reference to suppressing a document includes a reference to destroying the means of reproducing information recorded otherwise than in legible form.
(7)In this section the court means the High Court.