43.— (1) A committee of inquiry shall have all the powers, rights, privileges and duties of the Court or a judge of the Court that relate to—

(a) enforcing the attendance of witnesses,

(b) examining witnesses on oath or otherwise,

(c) compelling the production or inspection of records or other documents or property, and

(d) awarding and authorising the recovery of costs.

(2) The chair, or any other member of a committee of inquiry who has been authorised for the purpose by the Council, may issue a summons for the purposes of exercising and performing the powers, rights, privileges and duties referred to in subsections (1)(a) and (c).

(3) Subsection (2) does not limit the generality of subsection (1).

(4) Subject to any rules under section 11 and to the necessity of observing fair procedures, a committee of inquiry may receive evidence given—

(a) orally before the committee,

(b) by statutory declaration,

(c) as otherwise allowed by those rules, including by means of a live-video link, or any other mode of transmission.

(5) A witness before a committee of inquiry shall have the same immunities and privileges as a witness before the Court.

(6) An award of costs under subsection (1)(d) may, within 21 days of its having been made, be appealed to the District Court for the time being assigned to the district where the committee awarding the costs sat when doing so.

(7) A person shall be guilty of an offence if he or she—

(a) having been summoned to attend before a committee of inquiry, fails without reasonable excuse to attend,

(b) without reasonable excuse, refuses to—

(i) take an oath or make an affirmation,

(ii) produce or allow inspection of any record or other document or property in his or her possession or control that he or she is required to produce, or allow to be inspected, or

(iii) answer any question that he or she is lawfully required to answer,

or

(c) does anything that, if the committee were a court of law, would be contempt of court.

(8) On a failure or refusal of a kind mentioned in subsection (7)(a) or (b), the Court, on application by the Council, may—

(a) order the person to attend before the committee,

(b) order the person to do the thing that he or she refused to do,

(c) make such interim or interlocutory orders as it considers necessary,

(d) authorise the award of costs.

(9) An application for the making of an order under subsection (8) does not preclude proceedings for an offence under subsection (7)(a) or (b).

(10) In this section “Court” means the High Court.