Financial Services Act 1986

135 Communication by auditor with Secretary of State

(1) After section 21 of the Insurance Companies Act 1982 there shall be inserted—

“21A Communication by auditor with Secretary of State.

(1) No duty to which an auditor of an insurance company to which this Part of this Act applies may be subject shall be regarded as contravened by reason of his communicating in good faith to the Secretary of State, whether or not in response to a request from him, any information or opinion on a matter of which the auditor has become aware in his capacity as auditor of that company and which is relevant to any functions of the Secretary of State under this Act.

(2) If it appears to the Secretary of State that any auditor or class of auditor to whom subsection (1) above applies is not subject to satisfactory rules made or guidance issued by a professional body specifying circumstances in which matters are to be communicated to the Secretary of State as mentioned in that subsection the Secretary of State may make regulations applying to that auditor or class of auditor and specifying such circumstances; and it shall be the duty of an auditor to whom the regulations made by the Secretary of State apply to communicate a matter to the Secretary of State in the circumstances specified by the regulations.

(3) The matters to be communicated to the Secretary of State in accordance with any such rules or guidance or regulations may include matters relating to persons other than the company.

(4) No regulations shall be made under subsection (2) above unless a draft of them has been laid before and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.

(5) If it appears to the Secretary of State that an auditor has failed to comply with the duty mentioned in subsection (2) above, the Secretary of State may disqualify him from being the auditor of an insurance company or any class of insurance company to which Part II of this Act applies; but the Secretary of State may remove any disqualification imposed under this subsection if satisfied that the person in question will in future comply with that duty.

(6) An insurance company to which this Part of this Act applies shall not appoint as auditor a person disqualified under subsection (5) above.”.

(2) In section 71(7) of that Act (which lists the provisions of that Act default in complying with which is not an offence) after the words " section 16 " there shall be inserted the word " 21A ", and in section 97(4) of that Act (which provides that regulations under that Act are to be subject to annulment) after the word " Act" there shall be inserted the words " , except regulations under section 21A(3), ".