Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992

F1 103C Powers of entry N.I.

(1) An authorised officer shall be entitled, at any reasonable time and either alone or accompanied by such other persons as he thinks fit, to enter any p remises which—

(a) are liable to inspection under this section; and

(b) are premises to which it is reasonable for him to require entry in order to exercise the powers conferred by this section.

(2) An authorised officer who has entered any premises liable to inspection under this section may—

(a) make such an examination of those premises, and

(b) conduct any such inquiry there,

as appears to him appropriate for any one or more of the purposes mentioned in section 103A(2) above.

(3) An authorised officer who has entered any premises liable to inspection under this section may—

(a) question any person whom he finds there;

(b) require any person whom he finds there to do any one or more of the following—

(i) to provide him with such information,

(ii) to produce and deliver up and (if necessary) create such documents or such copies of, or extracts from, documents,

as he may reasonably require for any one or more of the purposes mentioned in section 103A(2) above; and

(c) take possession of and either remove or make his own copies of any such documents as appear to him to contain information that is relevant for any of those purposes.

(4) The premises liable to inspection under this section are any premises (including premises consisting in the whole or a part of a dwelling house) which an authorised officer has reasonable grounds for suspecting are—

(a) premises which are a person’s place of employment;

(b) premises from which a trade or business is being carried on or where documents relating to a trade or business are kept by the person carrying it on or by another person on his behalf;

(c) premises from which a personal or occupational pension scheme is being administered or where documents relating to the administration of such a scheme are kept by the person administering the scheme or by another person on his behalf;

(d) premises where a person who is the compensator in relation to any such accident, injury or disease as is referred to in section 103A(2)(b) above is to be found;

(e) premises where a person on whose behalf any such compensator has made, may have made or may make a compensation payment is to be found.

(5) An authorised officer applying for admission to any premises in accordance with this section shall, if required to do so, produce the certificate containing his authorisation for the purposes of this Part.

[F2 (6) Subsections (2E) and (5) of section 103B apply for the purposes of this section as they apply for the purposes of that section.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Ss. 103A-103C substituted for s. 104 (2.4.2001) by 2000 c. 4 (N.I.), s. 68(1), Sch. 6 para. 2 (with s. 66(6)); S.I. 2001/141, art. 2(1)(a), Sch. Pt. I

F2 S. 103C(6) substituted (22.7.2020) by Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (c. 25), s. 272(1), Sch. 2 para. 8 (with Sch. 9 paras. 7, 8, 10); S.I. 2020/766, reg. 2(d)