(1)Any provision made by or under any enactment which requires a person, in connection with any assigned matter,—
(a)to produce, furnish or deliver any document, or cause any document to be produced, furnished or delivered, or
(b)to permit the Commissioners of Customs and Excise (in this section referred to as “the Commissioners”) or a person authorised by them—
(i)to inspect any document, or
(ii)to make or take extracts from or copies of or remove any document,
shall have effect as if any reference in that provision to a document [F1were a reference to anything in which information of any description is recorded and any reference to a copy of a document were a reference to anything onto which information recorded in the documenthas been copied, by whatever means and whether directly or indirectly]
(2)In connection with any assigned matter, a person authorised by the Commissioners to exercise the powers conferred by this subsection—
(a)shall be entitled at any reasonable time to have access to, and inspect and check the operation of, any computer and any associated apparatus or material which is or has been in use in connection with any document to which this subsection applies; and
(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 him such reasonable assistance as he may require for the purposes of paragraph (a) above.
(3)Subsection (2) above applies to any document [F1, within the meaning given by subsection(1) above,] which, in connection with any assigned matter,a person is or may be required by or under any enactment—
(a)to produce, furnish or deliver, or cause to be produced, furnished or delivered; or
(b)to permit the Commissioners or a person authorised by them to inspect, make or take extracts from or copies of or remove.
(4)Any person who—
(a)obstructs a person authorised under subsection (2) above in the exercise of his powers under paragraph (a) of that subsection, or
(b)without reasonable excuse fails to comply within a reasonable time with a requirement under paragraph (b) of that subsection,
shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty of level 4 on the standard scale F2. . ..
(5)In each of the enactments mentioned in subsection (6) below (which create offences in relation, among other matters, to false documents) “document” shall have [F1the meaning given by subsection (1) above].
(6)The enactments referred to in subsection (5) above are—
(a)paragraph 4(1) of Schedule 1 to the M1Miscellaneous Transferred Excise Duties Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 (false statements and documents in connection with pool betting duty);
(b)paragraph 8(1) of Schedule 2 to that Act (false statements and documents in connection with general betting duty);
(c)section 167 of the M2Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 (untrue declarations etc.);
(d)section 168 of that Act (counterfeit documents etc.);
(e)section 15 of the M3Customs and Excise Duties (General Reliefs) Act 1979 (false statements and documents in connection with reliefs);
(f)paragraph 13(3) of Schedule 1 to the M4Betting and Gaming Duties Act 1981 (false statements and documents in connection with betting duty);
(g)paragraph 7(3) of Schedule 2 to that Act (false statements and documents in connection with gaming licence duty);
(h)paragraph 8(2) of Schedule 1 to the M5Car Tax Act 1983 (false documents etc.).
F3(7). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(8)In this section “assigned matter” means any matter which is an assigned matter for the purposes of the M6Customs and Excise Management Act 1979.
Textual Amendments
F1Words in s. 10(1)(3)(5) substituted (31.1.1997) by 1995 c. 38, s. 15(1), Sch. 1 para. 11(1)-(4) (with ss. 1(3), 6(4)(5), 14); S.I. 1996/3217, art. 2
F2Words in s. 10(4) repealed (5.11.1993) by 1993 c. 50, s. 1(1), Sch. 1 Pt. XIV
F3S. 10(7) repealed (31.1.1997) by 1995 c. 38, s. 15(1)(2), Sch. 1 para. 11(5), Sch. 2 (with ss. 1(3), 6(4)(5), 14); S.I. 1996/3217, art. 2
Marginal Citations