Consideration of Bill, as amended in the Public Bill Committee
New Clause 17
(2) In section 109A (authorisations for investigators)—
(a) before subsection (1) insert—
“(A1) An individual who for the time being has the Secretary of State’s authorisation for the purposes of this Part is entitled—
(a) for any one or more of the purposes mentioned in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (2), to exercise any of the powers which are conferred on an authorised officer by section 109BZA;
(b) for any one or more of the purposes mentioned in paragraphs (c) and (d) of subsection (2), to exercise any of the powers which are conferred on an authorised officer by section 109BZB;
(c) for any one or more of the purposes mentioned in subsection (2), to exercise any of the powers which are conferred on an authorised officer by section 109C.”;
(b) in subsection (1) for “Secretary of State’s” substitute “”Scottish Ministers’”;
(c) in subsection (2)(d), after “offences” insert “or, for the purposes of subsection (A1), other DWP offences”;
(d) in subsection (8), for “109B and 109C below” substitute “109B to 109C”.
(3) In section 109B (power to require information), in the heading, after “information” insert “: officers authorised by Scottish Ministers”.
(4) After section 109B insert—
“109BZA Power to require information about entitlement etc: officers authorised by Secretary of State
(1) An authorised officer may give a person (“P”) a written notice (an “information notice”) requiring P to give an authorised officer the information described in the notice where the officer has reasonable grounds for suspecting that P—
(a) is a person falling within subsection (2) of section 109B, and
(b) has or may have possession of or access to any information about any matter that is relevant for any one or more of the purposes mentioned in section 109A(2)(a) or (b) (entitlement to benefits etc).
(2) Information may be specified in an information notice only if it is reasonable for the authorised officer to require the information for one or more of the purposes mentioned in section 109A(2)(a) or (b).
(4) Subsections (2E) to (4) of section 109B apply to an information notice under this section as they apply to a notice under that section.