The Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996

Information relating to applications for payments N.I.

204.—(1) Where an employee makes an application to the Department under Article 201, the Department may, by notice in writing given to the employer, require the employer—

(a) to provide the Department with such information, and

(b) to produce for examination on behalf of the Department documents in his custody or under his control of such description,

as the Department may reasonably require for the purpose of determining whether the application is well-founded.

(2) Where a person on whom a notice is served under paragraph (1) fails without reasonable excuse to comply with a requirement imposed by the notice, he is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

(3) A person is guilty of an offence if—

(a) in providing any information required by a notice under paragraph (1), he makes a statement which he knows to be false in a material particular or recklessly makes a statement which is false in a material particular, or

(b) he produces for examination in accordance with a notice under paragraph (1) a document which to his knowledge has been wilfully falsified.

(4) A person guilty of an offence under paragraph (3) is liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or to both, or

(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to both.