Paragraph (2) applies if a duly authorised officer of an enforcement authority has reasonable cause to suspect that an offence under the preceding provisions of these Regulations has been committed.

The officer may, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the offence has been committed, require a trader to produce any document relating to the trader’s business and take copies of it or of any entry in it.

If such an officer has reason to believe that any documents may be required as evidence in proceedings for such an offence, the officer may seize and detain them and must, if the officer does so, inform the person from whom they are seized.

The powers in paragraphs (2) and (3) may only be exercised by an officer at a reasonable hour.

In this regulation “document” includes information recorded in any form.

The reference in paragraph (2) to the production of documents is, in the case of a document which contains information recorded otherwise than in legible form, a reference to the production of a copy of the information in legible form.

Nothing in this regulation is to be construed as requiring a person to answer any question or give any information if to do so might incriminate that person.

Nothing in this regulation gives any power to an officer of an enforcement authority to require any person to produce, or to seize from another person, a document to which paragraph (9) applies.