49.— Section 2 of the Statutory Declarations Act 1938 is amended—

(a) by substituting the following for subsection (2):

“(2) Save as is otherwise provided by this section, a person (‘the first-mentioned person’) shall not take or receive a statutory declaration from another person (‘ the declarant ’) unless—

(a) the declarant is personally known to the first-mentioned person or is identified to him or her by a person who is personally known to him or her, or

(b) if paragraph (a) is not applicable, the first-mentioned person—

(i) before taking or receiving the declaration, establishes the identity of the declarant by reference to a relevant document containing a photograph of the declarant, and

(ii) states in the attestation that the identity of the declarant has been so established and gives particulars of the relevant document concerned.”,

and

(b) by inserting the following after subsection (3):

“(4) In subsection (2) ‘ relevant document ’ means—

(a) a valid passport issued by or on behalf of an authority recognised by the Government,

(b) a national identity card issued by the authorities of—

(i) a Member State,

(ii) the Swiss Confederation, or

(iii) a Contracting Party to the EEA Agreement,

(c) a document which is equivalent to a passport, issued by or on behalf of an authority recognised by the Government, which establishes the identity and nationality of the person to whom the document relates,

(d) a travel document issued by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform under section 4 of the Refugee Act 1996, or

(e) a travel document other than a document to which paragraph (d) refers issued by the State solely for the purpose of providing the holder with a document which can serve in lieu of a national passport.

(5) In subsection (4), ‘ EEA Agreement ’ means the Agreement on the European Economic Area signed at Oporto on the 2nd of May 1992 as amended for the time being.”.