81A.—(1) A prison officer of or above the rank of sergeant may, for the purpose of assisting the Commissioner or Superintendent in making any inquiry under section 50X, 56, 57, 59E, 59F, 59O, 59P, 70 or 71 (as the case may be), by written notice require any person to provide, within a reasonable period specified in the notice, and in such form and manner as may be specified in the notice, all documents and information which —
(a)
relate to any matter specified by the prison officer; and
(b)
are —
(i)
within the knowledge of that person; or
(ii)
in the custody or under the control of that person.
(2) The power to require a person to provide any document or information under subsection (1) includes the power —
(a)
to require that person to provide an explanation of the document or information;
(b)
if the document or information is not provided, to require that person to state, to the best of the knowledge and belief of that person, where it is; and
(c)
if the information is recorded otherwise than in legible form, to require the information to be authenticated and made available to the prison officer concerned in legible form.
(3) The prison officer is entitled without payment to keep for the purposes of the inquiry mentioned in subsection (1) any document or information, or any copy or extract thereof, provided to him or her under that subsection.
(4) A person who, without reasonable excuse, fails to do anything required of the person by a notice under subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,500.
(5) To avoid doubt, for the purposes of subsection (4), it is a reasonable excuse for a person to refuse or fail to provide any information, produce any document or answer any question if doing so might tend to incriminate that person.
(6) In this section, “document” means anything in which information of any description is recorded.