Section 90: Information, Housing Act 1988

If required to do so by notice in writing given by the Secretary of State for any of the purposes mentioned in subsection (3) below, a local authority,—

at such time and place as may be specified in the notice, shall produce any document; or

within such period as may be so specified, or such longer period as the Secretary of State may allow, shall furnish a copy of any document or supply any information;

being a document, copy or information of a description specified in the notice.

Where notice is given to a local authority under subsection (1) above, any officer of the authority—

who has the custody or control of any document to which the notice relates, or

who is in a position to give information to which the notice relates,

shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that the notice is complied with.

The purposes referred to in subsection (1) above are—

determining whether the Secretary of State should make a designation order in respect of any area;

where a designation order is to be or has been made, detemining whether, and to what extent, he should exercise any of his other powers under this Part of this Act; and

enabling him to provide information to a housing action trust the better to enable it to carry out its functions.

Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) above, among the information which may be required by a notice under that subsection is information with respect to the interests in, and the occupation of, land held by a local authority and, in particular, information with respect to any matter entered in a register kept under the Land Registration Act 2002 or the Land Charges Act 1972.

To any extent to which, apart from this subsection, he would not be able to do so, the Secretary of State may use, for any of the purposes mentioned in subsection (3) above, any infor*mation obtained by him under, or in connection with his functions under, the Housing Act 1985 or any other enactment.

If the Secretary of State considers it necessary or desirable to do so in order the better to enable a housing action trust to carry out its functions, he may disclose to the trust any information originally obtained by him for a purpose falling within paragraph (a) or paragraph (b) of subsection (3) above as well as information obtained for the purpose referred to in paragraph (c) of that subsection.

In this section "local authority" has the same meaning as in section 74 above.

Section 90: Information

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