Customs and Excise Act 1952
Customs and Excise Act , 1952
(15 & 16 Geo. 6 & 1 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 44
An Act to consolidate with amendments certain enactments relating to customs and excise and to extend certain provisions of those enactments to any other matter in relation to which the Commissioners of Customs and Excise are for the time being required in pursuance of any enactment to perform any duties.
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
Part I
Administration
Appointment and duties of Commissioners, officers, etc.
1 Appointment and general duties of commissioners, etc.
(1) Her Majesty may from time to time, under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, appoint persons to be Commissioners of Customs and Excise, and any person so appointed shall hold office during Her Majesty's pleasure and may be paid such remuneration and allowances as the Treasury may determine.
(2) The Commissioners shall, subject to the general control of the Treasury, be charged with the duty of collecting and accounting for, and otherwise managing, the revenues of customs and excise.
(3) The Commissioners may commission such officers and appoint or authorise such other persons to discharge any duties in relation to any assigned matter on such terms and conditions, and may pay to them such remuneration and allowances, as the Commissioners may with the sanction of the Treasury determine, and the Commissioners may at their pleasure suspend, reduce, discharge or restore any officer or person so commissioned, appointed or authorised.
2 Privileges of Commissioners, etc.
(1) No Commissioner or officer and no person appointed by the Commissioners to discharge any duty relating to customs or excise shall be compelled to serve as a sheriff or in any corporate, parochial or other public office or on any jury whatsoever.
(2) Save as expressly provided by or under any enactment, no sum granted by way of remuneration or superannuation allowance to any person as being or having been a Commissioner, officer or person appointed as aforesaid shall before payment thereof to or for the use of that person be capable of assignment or be liable to be taken under or by virtue of any legal process.
(3) The benefits and advantages arising from membership of the Customs Annuity and Benevolent Fund and the Inland Revenue Life Assurance Benevolent Fund Society respectively shall be available to and in respect of the Commissioners, all officers and all persons appointed by the Commissioners to discharge any duty relating to any assigned matter.
3 Office hours, holidays, etc.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, the days on which and the hours between which offices of customs and excise are to be open or officers are to be available for the performance of particular duties shall be such as the Commissioners may direct.
(2) The following days shall be kept as holidays in the customs and excise, that is to say—
(a ) Good Friday and Christmas Day; and
(b ) in England and Wales, in Scotland and in Northern Ireland respectively, any other day which by virtue of section one of, and the Schedule to, the Bank Holidays Act, 1871, is a bank holiday in that part of the United Kingdom; and
(c ) the day appointed for the purposes of customs and excise for the celebration of Her Majesty's birthday.
(3) The powers conferred by sections four and five of the said Act to appoint special bank holidays and to alter the date of any bank holiday shall include power to appoint and alter days to be kept as holidays in the customs and excise.
4 Exercise of powers and performance of duties.
(1) Any act or thing required or authorised by or under any enactment to be done by the Commissioners or any of them may be done—
(a ) by any one or more of the Commissioners; or
(b ) if the Commissioners so authorise, by a secretary or assistant secretary to the Commissioners; or
(c ) by any other person authorised generally or specially in that behalf in writing by the Commissioners.
(2) Any person, whether an officer or not, engaged by the orders or with the concurrence of the Commissioners (whether previously or subsequently expressed) in the performance of any act or duty relating to an assigned matter which is by law required or authorised to be performed by or with an officer, shall be deemed to be the proper officer by or with whom that act or duty is to be performed, and any person so deemed to be the proper officer shall have all the powers of an officer in relation to that act or duty.
5 Assistance to be rendered by police, etc.
5. It shall be the duty of every constable and every member of Her Majesty's armed forces or coastguard to assist in the enforcement of the law relating to any assigned matter.
6 Power to hold inquiries.
(1) The Commissioners may hold or cause to be held such inquiries as they consider necessary or desirable for the purposes of any assigned matter, including inquiries into the conduct of any officer or of any person appointed by them.
(2) The person holding any such inquiry—
(a ) may require any person, subject to the tender of the reasonable expenses of his attendance, to attend as a witness and give evidence or to produce any document in his possession or control which relates to any matter in question at the inquiry and is such as would be subject to production in a court of law; and
(b ) may require evidence to be given on oath, and for that purpose shall have power to administer oaths.
(3) If any person fails without reasonable excuse to comply with any such requirement as aforesaid, he shall be liable to a penalty of five pounds.
(4) Subject to the foregoing provisions of this section, the procedure and conduct of any inquiry under this section shall be such as the Commissioners may direct.
Offences in connection with Commissioners, officers, etc.
7 Unlawful assumption of character of officer, etc.
7. If, for the purpose of obtaining admission to any house or other place, or of doing or procuring to be done any act which he would not be entitled to do or procure to be done of his own authority, or for any other unlawful purpose, any person falsely assumes the name, designation or character of a Commissioner or officer or of a person appointed by the Commissioners he shall, in addition to any other punishment to which he may have rendered himself liable, be liable on summary conviction to a penalty of one hundred pounds or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to both, or on conviction on indictment to a penalty of five hundred pounds or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both; and he may be detained.
8 Failure to surrender commission, etc.
8. If any person to whom a commission or other written authority has been issued by the Commissioners is required by the Commissioners to deliver up or account to their satisfaction for that commission or authority and fails to comply within such period as may be specified in the requirement, he shall be liable to a penalty of twenty pounds, and if the failure continues after he is convicted thereof he shall be guilty of a further offence and be liable to a penalty of five pounds for every day on which the failure has so continued.
9 Bribery and collusion.
(1) If any Commissioner or officer or any person appointed or authorised by the Commissioners to discharge any duty relating to an assigned matter—
(a ) directly or indirectly asks for or takes in connection with any of his duties any payment or other reward whatsoever, whether pecuniary or otherwise, or any promise or security for any such payment or reward, not being a payment or reward which he is lawfully entitled to claim or receive; or
(b ) enters into or acquiesces in any agreement to do, abstain from doing, permit, conceal or connive at any act or thing whereby Her Majesty is or may be...
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