Section 166: Reports by skilled persons
317.This gives the Authority the power to require an authorised person or a formerly authorised person to commission and provide the Authority with a report into any relevant matter the Authority may specify. This must be a matter about which the Authority could require information under section 165, so the report must reasonably be required in connection with the discharge of the Authority’s functions.
318.The power also enables the Authority to require such reports from other persons carrying on a business who are, or were, connected to the authorised or formerly authorised person in the ways specified in subsection (2). Essentially, these are members of the same group of companies, or companies closely linked through a common shareholder, or any partnership of which the authorised or formerly authorised person is or was a member. This is a more limited set of persons than under section 165 and Schedule 13.
319.The person making the report must be nominated by the Authority, or his appointment must be approved by it. The Authority has to be satisfied that he has the relevant skills to report on the matter concerned. In many cases this person may be an accountant, or they may be a person with some other suitable professional qualification, such as a lawyer or an actuary, or they may be a person with particular commercial or professional experience, such as a banker. The Authority may also specify the form of the report.
320.Subsection (5) imposes an obligation on any in‑house expert working for the authorised or connected person to co-operate with the person appointed to produce the report. Thus, if the report is to be produced by an actuary then the in‑house actuary who works for the firm is obliged to co-operate in the production of the report. This duty is enforceable by the Authority through an injunction, or a comparable order in Scotland.
