New South Wales Consolidated Acts

HEALTH CARE LIABILITY ACT 2001 - SECT 29

29 Powers of entry, inspection and investigation by authorised officers

(1) In this section:
"authorised officer" means a person appointed by the Minister as an authorised officer for the purposes of this Act.
"insurer" means a person who provides, or who formerly provided, professional indemnity insurance, and includes any insurance broker or commission agent engaged in the business of professional indemnity insurance in respect of health care.
"premises" includes any structure, building, aircraft, vehicle and place (whether built on or not).

(2) Powers may be exercised by an authorised officer under this section for the following purposes:

(a) for determining whether there has been compliance with or a contravention of this Act (including the requirements imposed by an insurance regulation order),

(b) for obtaining information and documents for purposes connected with the administration of this Act.

(3) An authorised officer may do any or all of the following:

(a) on production of his or her authority, enter at any reasonable hour any premises used, or that the authorised officer reasonably suspects to be used, by an insurer for the conduct of the insurer’s business or the storage or custody of any document,

(b) on production of his or her authority, enter at any reasonable hour any premises in or on which the authorised officer knows, or reasonably suspects, an insurer to be,

(c) remain in or on those premises while exercising any power conferred by this section,

(d) require an insurer or any other person in or on those premises to produce any such document that is in his or her possession or under his or her control and is capable of being produced,

(e) require an insurer or any other person having possession or control of any such document that is not written, or is not written in the English language or is not decipherable on sight, to produce a statement, written in the English language and decipherable on sight, of the information contained in the document,

(f) inspect, or make copies of or take extracts from, a document produced pursuant to paragraph (d) or a statement produced pursuant to paragraph (e), or retain such a statement,

(g) require an insurer or any other person in or on those premises to answer questions relating to the observance of this Act (including the requirements imposed by an insurance regulation order),

(h) require an insurer or any other person, by notice in writing served on the person, to produce to the authorised officer for inspection (in accordance with the notice) any document that the authorised officer has reasonable grounds to believe that the person is capable of producing in relation to a possible contravention of this Act (including the requirements imposed by an insurance regulation order).

(4) A person must not:

(a) refuse or fail to allow an authorised officer to enter premises under this section, or

(b) wilfully obstruct or delay an authorised officer when exercising powers under this section, or

(c) unreasonably refuse or fail to produce a document or statement to an authorised officer under this section, or

(d) if an authorised officer informs a person that by virtue of this Act the person is obliged to answer questions relating to any matter referred to in subsection (3) (g):

(i) refuse or fail to answer such a question, or

(ii) give an answer to such a question that the person knows is false or misleading in a material particular.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units.

(5) The powers of entry conferred by this section are not exercisable in relation to any part of premises used only for residential purposes except:

(a) with the permission of the occupier of the premises, or

(b) under the authority conferred by a search warrant.