129. (1) The Commission may appoint such and so many members of its staff, and such and so many other suitably qualified persons, as it considers appropriate to be authorised officers for the purposes of this Act.

(2) A person appointed under subsection (1) shall, on his or her appointment, be furnished by the Commission with a certificate of his or her appointment and, when exercising a power conferred by this Act shall, on request by any person thereby affected, produce such certificate together with a form of personal identification to that person for inspection.

(3) A person who, immediately before the commencement of this section, was an authorised officer under section 24 of the Act of 1988 shall—

(a) for the unexpired period of his or her term of appointment under that section, and

(b) subject to the same terms and conditions as applied to that appointment,

be deemed to be an authorised officer appointed under subsection (1), and accordingly paragraph (a) of subsection (4) shall apply in respect of that authorised officer.

(4) An appointment shall cease—

(a) if the Commission revokes, in writing, the appointment,

(b) in the case of a person who at the time of his or her appointment was a member of staff of the Commission, upon the person ceasing to be such a member of staff, or

(c) in the case of an appointment for a fixed period, upon the expiry of that period.

(5) In this section, “suitably qualified person” means a person other than a member of staff of the Commission who, in the opinion of the Commission, has the expertise and experience necessary to perform the functions conferred on an authorised officer by this Act.