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Section 83: Power to require information, documents or other assistance.

Companies Act 1989 · 1989 c. 40View on legislation.gov.uk

Part III: Investigations and Powers to Obtain Information

The following powers may be exercised in accordance with section 82, if the Secretary of State considers there is good reason for their exercise.

The Secretary of State may require any person—

to attend before him at a specified time and place and answer questions or otherwise furnish information with respect to any matter relevant to the inquiries,
to produce at a specified time and place any specified documents which appear to the Secretary of State to relate to any matter relevant to the inquiries, and
otherwise to give him such assistance in connection with the inquiries as he is reasonably able to give.

The Secretary of State may examine a person on oath and may administer an oath accordingly.

Where documents are produced the Secretary of State may take copies or extracts from them.

A person shall not under this section be required to disclose information or produce a document which he would be entitled to refuse to disclose or produce on grounds of legal professional privilege in proceedings in the High Court or on grounds of confidentiality as between client and professional legal adviser in proceedings in the Court of Session, except that a lawyer may be required to furnish the name and address of his client.

A statement by a person in compliance with a requirement imposed under this section may be used in evidence against him.

However, in criminal proceedings in which that person is charged with an offence to which this subsection applies—

no evidence relating to the statement may be adduced, and
no question relating to it may be asked,

by or on behalf of the prosecution, unless evidence relating to it is adduced, or a question relating to it is asked, in the proceedings by or on behalf of that person.

Subsection (6A) applies to any offence other than—

an offence under section 85;
an offence under section 2 or 5 of the Perjury Act 1911 (false statements made on oath otherwise than in judicial proceedings or made otherwise than on oath);
an offence under section 44(1) or (2) of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 (false statements made on oath or otherwise than on oath); or
an offence under Article 7 or 10 of the Perjury (Northern Ireland) Order 1979 (false statements made on oath otherwise than in judicial proceedings or made otherwise than on oath).

Where a person claims a lien on a document, its production under this section is without prejudice to his lien.

In this section "documents" includes information recorded in any form; and, in relation to information recorded otherwise than in legible form, the power to require its production includes power to require the production of a copy of it in legible form.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.