Power to enter premises and inspect and seize goods and documents
23.—(1) The Director or an officer authorised by the Director may, at all reasonable hours, exercise the following powers:
(a)
he or she may, for the purpose of ascertaining whether any offence under this Act has been committed, inspect any goods and enter any premises;
(b)
if he or she has reasonable cause to suspect that an offence under this Act has been committed, he or she may, for the purpose of ascertaining whether it has been committed, require any person carrying on a trade or business or employed in connection with a trade or business to produce any books or documents relating to the trade or business and may take copies of, or of any entry in, any such books or documents;
(c)
if he or she has reasonable cause to believe that an offence under this Act has been committed, he or she may seize and detain any goods for the purpose of ascertaining, by testing or otherwise, whether the offence has been committed;
(d)
he or she may seize and detain any goods or documents which he or she has reason to believe may be required as evidence in proceedings for an offence under this Act;
(e)
he or she may, for the purpose of exercising his or her powers under this subsection to seize goods, but only if and to the extent that it is reasonably necessary in order to secure that the provisions of this Act and of any regulations made under this Act are duly observed, require any person having authority to do so to break open any container or open any vending machine and, if that person does not comply with the requirement, he or she may do so himself or herself.
(2) The Director or an officer authorised by the Director must, on seizing any goods or documents in the exercise of his or her powers under this section, inform the person from whom they are seized and, in the case of goods seized from a vending machine, the person whose name and address are stated on the machine as being the proprietor or, if no name and address are so stated, the occupier of the premises on which the machine stands or to which it is affixed.
(3) The Director or an officer authorised by the Director entering any premises by virtue of this section may take with him or her such other persons and such equipment as may appear to him or her necessary.
(4) If any person discloses to any other person —
(a)
any information with respect to any manufacturing process or trade secret obtained by the person in premises which the person has entered by virtue of this section; or
(b)
any information obtained by the person pursuant to this Act,
the person shall be guilty of an offence unless the disclosure was made in or for the purpose of the performance of functions under this Act.