Schedules Schedule 4: Supply of information: enforcement
Part 1 of Schedule 4 makes provision about the enforcement of notices under section 14.
	Paragraph 1 provides that the ICRIR may require a person to pay a penalty of up to £5,000 if the ICRIR is satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that the person has failed to comply with a notice under section 11. No such penalty can be imposed if the person shows there was a reasonable excuse for the failure to comply with the notice.
	Paragraph 2 provides that if the ICRIR decides to require a person to pay a penalty they must give the person a penalty notice, and that the penalty notice must be in the form specified in sub-paragraph (2).
	Paragraph 3 gives the recipient of a penalty notice the right to object to it by giving notice to the ICRIR. The ICRIR must consider the notice of objection and notify the recipient of the ICRIR’s decision in writing within 70 days of the penalty notice, or longer if agreed between the ICRIR and the recipient. The notification of the ICRIR’s decision in respect of the objection must be consistent with sub-paragraph (6).
	Paragraph 4 gives the recipient of a penalty notice the right to appeal to the county court (sheriff in Scotland) against a penalty notice which has not been cancelled in response to their objection under paragraph 3.
	Paragraph 5 provides how the recoverability of a penalty is to be treated depending on whether the person is in the jurisdiction of England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, and that the ICRIR must pay any penalty payments received into the Consolidated Fund.
	Part 2 of Schedule 4 makes it a criminal offence to distort evidence provided to the Commissioner for Investigations, or to otherwise prevent evidence from being given. It also makes it a criminal offence for a person to intentionally suppress, alter or destroy a document that the person thinks is a document that the Commissioner for Investigations would wish to be provided with. Proceedings for the criminal offences can only be instituted with the consent of the relevant Director of Public Prosecutions in either England and Wales or Northern Ireland.