Commentary Campaign Section 16 - Campaign rules: general offences
173.Section 16 specifies that a person commits an offence by altering, suppressing, concealing or destroying a document liable to be produced for inspection, in order to falsify the document or circumvent the campaign control provisions of this Act contained in schedules 3 to 5. It is also an offence for an office-holder in a supervised organisation (that is, a permitted participant as defined in schedule 3 paragraph 2 other than an individual) to fail to provide information to an individual who is a permitted participant, or to the responsible person as defined in schedule 7) without a reasonable excuse, or to knowingly provide false information. It is also an offence for a person to withhold information required for the purposes of schedules 3 to 5 from the responsible person or individual who is a permitted participant where there is intent to deceive. Offences under this section can be prosecuted by summary proceedings or on indictment, and carry a penalty of imprisonment or a fine, or both.