Companies (Auditing and Accounting) Act 2003
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Amendment of section 194 of Act of 1990 (duty of auditors). |
37.—Section 194 of the Act of 1990 is amended as follows: | |
(a) in paragraph (b) of subsection (3A) (inserted by the Company Law Enforcement Act 2001 ) by substituting “access to books and documents” for “access to documents”; | ||
(b) in subsection (3A) by substituting “being information, books or documents” for “being information or documents”; | ||
(c) in subsection (4) by substituting “subsection (1), (3A), (5) or (5A)” for “subsection (1), (3A) or (5)”; | ||
(d) in subsection (5) by inserting “(other than an indictable offence under section 125(1) or 127(12) of the Principal Act)” after “an indictable offence under the Companies Acts”; | ||
(e) by inserting the following after subsection (5) (inserted by the Company Law Enforcement Act 2001 ): | ||
“(5A) Where the auditors of a company notify the Director of any matter pursuant to subsection (5), they shall, in addition to performing their obligations under that subsection, if requested by the Director— | ||
(a) furnish the Director with such further information in their possession or control relating to the matter as the Director may require, including further information relating to the details of the grounds on which they formed the opinion referred to in that subsection, | ||
(b) give the Director such access to books and documents in their possession or control relating to the matter as the Director may require, and | ||
(c) give the Director such access to facilities for the taking of copies of or extracts from those books and documents as the Director may require. | ||
(5B) Nothing in this section compels the disclosure by any person of any information that the person would be entitled to refuse to produce on the grounds of legal professional privilege or authorises the inspection or copying of any document containing such information that is in the person's possession.”. |