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Formal Consolidation |  2001 RevEd
Powers of entry and inspection
17.  Any Licensing Officer or police officer may enter any place where a licensed public entertainment is being provided with a view to ascertaining whether the conditions of the licence and the provisions of this Act are being complied with.
[16
Informal Consolidation | Amended Act 28 of 2017
Powers of entry and inspection
17.—(1)  The Licensing Officer, a police officer or an authorised person (each called in this section an inspecting officer) may exercise all or any of the powers in this section for the purpose of ascertaining whether the condition of any licence, condition of any classification or the provisions of this Act are being complied with.
[Act 28 of 2017 wef 01/08/2017]
(1A)  An inspecting officer may —
(a)enter and inspect any premises where public entertainment is provided, or that the inspecting officer believes on reasonable grounds is used for the provision of public entertainment;
(b)photograph or film, or make a record or sketches of, any part of the premises, or any person or thing at the premises;
(c)require any person on those premises to produce or grant access to, without charge, any document, information or article reasonably required for any purpose in subsection (1), which is in the possession or under the control of that person;
(d)inspect and make copies of or take extracts from any such document or article; and
(e)subject to section 17A(6), take possession of such a document or article if, in the opinion of the inspecting officer —
(i)the inspection or copying of or extraction from the document or article cannot reasonably be performed without taking possession;
(ii)the document or article may be interfered with or destroyed unless possession is taken; or
(iii)the document or article may be required as evidence in any proceedings instituted or commenced under this Act.
[Act 28 of 2017 wef 01/08/2017]
(1B)  The power to require a person to furnish any document, information or article under subsection (1A)(c) includes the power —
(a)to require the person, or any person who is or was an officer or employee of that person, to provide an explanation of the document, information or article;
(b)if the document, information or article is not furnished, to require the person to state, to the best of the person’s knowledge and belief, where it is; and
(c)if the document, information or article is recorded otherwise than in legible form, to require the document, information or article to be made available to the inspecting officer in legible form.
[Act 28 of 2017 wef 01/08/2017]
(1C)  For the purposes of subsection (1A), if any document or information required by the inspecting officer is kept in electronic form —
(a)the power of the inspecting officer to inspect the document or to obtain the information includes the power to —
(i)access any computer or other equipment (including a mobile telephone) in which the document or information is stored; and
(ii)require any person having charge of, or otherwise concerned with the operation of, the computer or equipment to provide assistance in gaining such access; and
(b)the power of the inspecting officer to seize such document includes the power —
(i)to make copies of the document in legible or electronic form; and
(ii)to transfer the information from the document to a disk, tape or other storage device.
[Act 28 of 2017 wef 01/08/2017]
(1D)  If the inspecting officer under subsection (1C)(b) is unable to make copies of the document or transfer the information from the document, the Licensing Officer or a police officer (who may not be the inspecting officer) may —
(a)subject to section 17A(6), seize the computer or other equipment (including a mobile telephone) in which the document or information is stored, as evidence in proceedings for an offence under this Act; and
(b)require any person having charge of, or otherwise concerned with the operation of, the computer or equipment to disclose any password or access code for gaining access to the document or information held in the computer or equipment.
[Act 28 of 2017 wef 01/08/2017]
(2)  Nothing in this section or section 17A, 17B or 18 shall derogate from the powers of a police officer under the Criminal Procedure Code (Cap. 68).
[Act 32 of 2014 wef 01/01/2015]