Appendix 4 - Principles formulated by the Public and Administrative Law Reform Committee in its Seventeenth Report on Statutory Powers of Entry
The fourteen principles formulated by the Public and Administrative Law Reform Committee in its Seventeenth Report on Powers of Entry, at pages 3-4, are:
1 A power enabling officials to enter private property must be essential to achieve a purpose of the Act.
2 A power to enter should be conferred expressly and not by implication.
3 The purpose that justifies an entry should be expressed in terms that are as precise as the subject-matter permits.
4 The grounds for an entry should be objective not subjective.
5 Reasonable notice of intended entry should be required except where the giving of notice is likely .to defeat the purpose of the entry.
6 Where entry is required for the purpose of ascertaining whether an offence has been committed, the official should obtain a warrant from a judicial officer by written application on oath.
7 Where entry is to be into a dwellinghouse, it should be authorised by a warrant from a judicial officer by written application on oath.
8 The exercise of powers of entry should be confined to reasonable times.
9 A power to enter should not be accompanied by a power to use force in the entry, unless the absence of such an auxiliary power would frustrate the purpose of the entry.
10 An entrant should carry a warrant of authority to identify himself, the position he holds, and the source and nature of his authority, which he should produce upon initial entry, and if requested at any subsequent time.
11 The acts that the official can perform, the questions he may ask once he has gained admission, and the use he may make of any information that he acquires following the entry, should be related to the purpose of the particular entry and should be specified as precisely as possible.
12 The relationship between the privilege against self-incrimination and an official's power to ask questions should be clarified in respect of each separate power, preferably by expressly affirming the privilege.
13 Where, consequent upon a power of entry, an individual is required to carry out work or pay for its completion, should he fail to complete it himself, he should be entitled to challenge the need for the work, and the cost of it, in the courts.
14 When an enactment provides for compensation for damage occasioned by the entry, and the amount of that compensation is assessed by a Minister or official, then, in case of dispute, the amount should be determined by an independent tribunal or court.