Every person who is concerned (in whatever capacity) in the importation or exportation of goods of which F1for that purpose an entry is required by regulation 5 of the Customs Controls on Importation of Goods Regulations 1991 or an entry or specification is required by or under this Act shall keep such records as the Commissioners may require.

The Commissioners may require any records kept in pursuance of this section to be preserved for such period not exceeding four years as they may require.

The duty under this section to preserve records may be discharged by the preservation of the information contained therein by such means as the Commissioners may approve; and where that information is so preserved a copy of any document forming part of the records shall, subject to the following provisions of this section, be admissible in evidence in any proceedings, whether civil or criminal, to the same extent as the records themselves.

The Commissioners may, as a condition of an approval under subsection (3) above of any means of preserving information, impose such reasonable requirements as appear to them necessary for securing that the information will be as readily available to them as if the records themselves had been preserved.

The Commissioners may at any time for reasonable cause revoke or vary the conditions of any approval given under subsection (3) above.