Finance Act, 1997

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Evidence of computer stored records in court proceedings.

81.—Chapter IV of Part II of the Act of 1992 is hereby amended by the insertion of the following section after section 131:

“131A.—(1) In this section—

‘copy record’ means any copy of an original record or a copy of that copy made in accordance with either of the methods referred to in subsection (2) and accompanied by the certificate referred to in subsection (4), which original record or copy of an original record is in the possession of the Commissioners;

‘original record’ means any document, record or record of an entry in a document or record or information stored by means of any storage equipment, whether or not in a legible form, made or stored by the Commissioners for the purposes of or in connection with this Chapter and regulations made thereunder and which is in the possession of the Commissioners;

‘provable record’ means an original record or a copy record and in the case of an original record or a copy record stored in any storage equipment, whether or not in a legible form, includes the production or reproduction of the record in a legible form;

‘storage equipment’ means any electronic, magnetic, mechanical, photographic, optical or other device used for storing information.

(2) The Commissioners may, where by reason of—

(a) the deterioration of, or

(b) the inconvenience in storing, or

(c) the technical obsolescence in the manner of keeping,

any original record or any copy record, make a legible copy of the record or store information concerning that record otherwise than in a legible form so that the information is capable of being used to make a legible copy of the record, and the Commissioners may thereupon destroy the original record or the copy record:

Provided that any authorisation required by the National Archives Act, 1986 , for such destruction has been granted.

(3) The legible copy of a record made in accordance with subsection (2) or the information concerning such record stored in accordance with subsection (2) shall be deemed to be an original record for the purposes of this section.

(4) In any proceedings a certificate signed by an officer of the Commissioners stating that a copy record has been made in accordance with the provisions of subsection (2) shall be prima facie evidence, until the contrary has been proved, of the fact of the making of such a copy record and that it is a true copy.

(5) In any proceedings a document purporting to be a certificate under subsection (4) shall be deemed, until the contrary has been proved, to be such a certificate without proof of the signature of the person purporting to sign the certificate or that such person was a proper person to so sign.

(6) A provable record shall be admissible in evidence in any proceedings and shall be prima facie evidence, until the contrary has been proved, of any fact therein stated or event thereby recorded:

Provided that the court is satisfied of the reliability of the system used to make or compile—

(a) in the case of an original record, that record, and

(b) in the case of a copy record, the original on which it was based.

(7) In any proceedings a certificate signed by an officer of the Commissioners stating that a full and detailed search has been made for a record of an event in every place where such records are kept and that no such record has been found shall be prima facie evidence, until the contrary has been proved, that the event did not happen:

Provided that the court is satisfied—

(a) of the reliability of the system used to compile or make or keep such records,

(b) that, if the event had happened, a record would have been made of it, and

(c) that the system is such that the only reasonable explanation for the absence of such a record is that the event did not happen.

(8) For the purposes of this section, and subject to the direction and control of the Commissioners, any power, function or duty conferred or imposed on them may be exercised or performed on their behalf by an officer of the Commissioners.