Nuclear Safeguards Act 2000



Nuclear Safeguards Act 2000

2000 CHAPTER 5

An Act to enable effect to be given to the protocol signed at Vienna on 22nd September 1998 additional to the agreement for the application of safeguards in the United Kingdom in connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons; to allow effect to be given to that agreement in certain territories outside the United Kingdom; and for connected purposes.

[25th May 2000]

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:—

S-1 Interpretation.

1 Interpretation.

(1) In this Act—

‘Additional Protocol’ means the protocol signed at Vienna on 22nd September 1998 (Cm. 4282) additional to the Safeguards Agreement;

‘Additional Protocol information’ means information which the Secretary of State needs or will need in order to enable the obligations of the United Kingdom under Article 2 of, or the third or fourth paragraph of Annex III to, the Additional Protocol to be met;

‘Agency’ means the International Atomic Energy Agency;

‘Agency inspector’ means a person designated under Article 85 of the Safeguards Agreement or Article 11 of the Additional Protocol;

‘authorised officer’ means a person authorised by the Secretary of State for the purpose of exercising powers under this Act; and

‘Safeguards Agreement’ means the agreement made on 6th September 1976 between the United Kingdom, the European Atomic Energy Community and the Agency for the application of safeguards in the United Kingdom in connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

(2) References in the following provisions of this Act to Articles or Annexes are to articles of or annexes to the Additional Protocol.

(3) For the purposes of this Act the text of the Additional Protocol is that signed on 22nd September 1998 but subject, in the case of Annexes I and II, to any amendments made under Article 16.b.

S-2 Information and records for purposes of the Additional Protocol.

2 Information and records for purposes of the Additional Protocol.

(1) No obligation as to secrecy or other restriction on disclosure (whether imposed by statute or otherwise) prevents a person voluntarily giving information to the Secretary of State if that person has reasonable cause to believe that it is Additional Protocol information.

(2) The Secretary of State may serve a notice on any person requiring him to give the Secretary of State information, or information of a description, specified in the notice—

(a) within a period or at times specified in the notice; and

(b) if the notice so provides, in such form as the notice may require.

(3) The information required by a notice—

(a) must be information which the Secretary of State has reasonable cause to believe is Additional Protocol information; and

(b) may relate to a state of affairs subsisting before the coming into force of this Act or of the Additional Protocol.

(4) A notice shall not require a person to give information which is required only for the purposes of sub-paragraph (ii) of Article 2.a. unless the notice sets out the terms, agreed by the United Kingdom, in which the Agency has identified information for the purposes of that sub-paragraph.

(5) A person who refuses or fails without reasonable excuse to comply with a notice is guilty of an offence.

(6) The duty to comply with a notice is not affected by any obligation or restriction mentioned in subsection (1).

(7) A person on whom a notice is served shall keep and retain such records of information in his possession (and retain any existing records) as may be necessary to enable him to comply with the notice; and a failure to do so shall be taken into account in proceedings for an offence under subsection (5) in determining whether a reasonable excuse exists for a refusal or failure to comply with the notice.

(8) In this section ‘notice’ means a notice served under subsection (2).

S-3 Identifying persons who have information.

3 Identifying persons who have information.

(1) The Secretary of State may make regulations requiring persons of any description specified in the regulations to inform him that they are of such a description and to give such supplementary particulars as may be so specified.

(2) Any such description must be so framed that persons within it are—

(a) persons about whose activities the United Kingdom is or will be obliged under the Additional Protocol to provide information to the Agency; or

(b) other persons likely to be in possession of information which the Secretary of State has reasonable cause to believe is Additional Protocol information.

(3) The regulations may—

(a) require persons to notify the Secretary of State of changes in their circumstances; and

(b) include incidental and supplementary provisions.

(4) Regulations under this section shall be made by statutory instrument subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

(5) If regulations are made under this section the Secretary of State shall arrange for a statement of the fact that they have been made to be published in such manner as is likely to bring them to the attention of persons affected by them.

(6) A person who fails without reasonable excuse to comply with a requirement imposed by regulations under this section is guilty of an offence.

S-4 Powers of entry in relation to Additional Protocol information.

4 Powers of entry in relation to Additional Protocol information.

(1) If a justice of the peace is satisfied, on information on oath, that a person served with a notice under section 2(2) has refused to give all or any of the information required by the notice, or has failed to give all or any of that information within the period or at the time required by the notice, and that there are reasonable grounds for believing—

(a) that the Secretary of State is not in possession of all or any of the information which that person has refused or failed to give; and

(b) that a document or other thing, containing any of the information which that person has refused or failed to give and which is not in the possession of the Secretary of State, is to be found on any premises,

he may issue a warrant authorising an authorised officer to enter the premises, if necessary by force, at any reasonable hour within one month from the time of the issue of the warrant and to search them.

(2) If a justice of the peace is satisfied, on information on oath, that the Secretary of State has specified information, or information of a description, in a notice served under section 2(2) or in a certificate for the purposes of this subsection, and that there are reasonable grounds for believing—

(a) that the Secretary of State is not in possession of all or any of the information so specified or all or any information of the description so specified;

(b) that a document or other thing containing any of the information so specified or any information of the description so specified is to be found on any premises; and

(c) that the document or other thing is likely to be altered, destroyed or otherwise disposed of without all the information so specified or all the information of the description so specified which is contained in it and is not in the possession of the Secretary of State having been given to him,

he may issue a warrant authorising an authorised officer to enter the premises, if necessary by force, at any reasonable hour within one month from the time of the issue of the warrant and to search them.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2) there may be specified in a certificate only information, or information of a description, which could be specified in a notice under section 2(2).

(4) Subsections (1) and (2) apply to Scotland with the substitution—

(a) for ‘justice of the peace’ of ‘justice (within the meaning of section 307 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 )’; and

(b) for ‘on information on oath’ of ‘by evidence on oath’.

(5) The powers of an authorised officer who enters premises under the authority of a warrant under this section include power—

(a) to take with him such other persons and such equipment as appear to him to be necessary;

(b) to inspect anything found on the premises;

(c) to require any information which is held in electronic form and is accessible from the premises to be produced in a form in which he can read and copy it; and

(d) to copy, or to seize and remove, any document or other thing which he has reasonable cause to believe is something which contains Additional Protocol information.

(6) A constable who enters premises under the authority of a warrant or by virtue of subsection (5)(a) may—

(a) give such assistance as an authorised officer may request for the purpose of facilitating the exercise of any power under this section; and

(b) search or cause to be searched any person on the premises who the constable has reasonable cause to believe may have in his possession any document or other thing falling within subsection (5)(d).

(7) No constable shall, by virtue of subsection (6)(b), search a person of the opposite sex.

(8) The powers conferred by a warrant under this section shall only be exercisable, if the warrant so...

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