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Electricity Industry Act 2010

Electricity industry governance - Monitoring and enforcement - Authority's powers and procedures

47: Power to search

You could also call this:

“Electricity officials can look for rule-breakers with a special permission slip”

The Authority can allow one of its employees to search a place if they think someone might be breaking the rules. This employee is called an ‘authorised person’.

To do a search, the authorised person needs a special permission slip called a warrant. They can get this warrant from someone important, like a judge. The judge will only give the warrant if they think there’s a good reason to search.

When the authorised person searches, they have to follow certain rules. These rules are written in another law called the Search and Surveillance Act. Some parts of this Act don’t apply, but most of it does.

The reason for doing these searches is to check if anyone who works with electricity, or anyone else the Authority is looking at, might be breaking the rules. These rules are written in different parts of the law about electricity.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM3019724.

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46: Authority's monitoring, investigation, enforcement, and review powers, or

"The Electricity Authority's special powers to watch over and enforce rules in the electricity industry"

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47A: Sharing of information and documents with public service agencies, statutory entities, gas industry body, and overseas regulators, or

"The Electricity Authority can share info with other groups to help them work together better"

Part 2 Electricity industry governance
Monitoring and enforcement: Authority's powers and procedures

47Power to search

  1. The Authority may, for a purpose specified in section 45(b), authorise an employee of the Authority (an authorised person) to search, under a warrant issued under subsection (2), any place named in the warrant for the purpose of ascertaining whether an industry participant or a specified person has breached, or may breach, this Part, Part 4, the regulations, or the Code.

  2. An issuing officer (within the meaning of section 3 of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012), on an application made in the manner provided in subpart 3 of Part 4 of that Act, who is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe that it is necessary, for the purpose of ascertaining whether an industry participant or a specified person has breached, or may breach, this Part, Part 4, the regulations, or the Code, for an authorised person to search any place may, by warrant, authorise that person to search a place specified in the warrant.

  3. The provisions of Part 4 of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 (except for sections 118 and 119) apply, with any necessary modifications.

Compare
Notes
  • Section 47(1): amended, on , by section 58 of the Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Act 2025 (2025 No 11).
  • Section 47(2): amended, on , by section 58 of the Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Act 2025 (2025 No 11).
  • Section 47(2): amended, on , by section 239(2) of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 (2012 No 24).
  • Section 47(3): replaced, on , by section 239(3) of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 (2012 No 24).