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Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025

Miscellaneous provisions - Compliance and enforcement - Power to obtain information

291: Delegation of power to issue warrants to compliance officers

You could also call this:

"Councils can give some of their power to others to issue special permission slips to compliance officers."

Illustration for Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025

A territorial authority or water organisation can give some of their power to a committee or a person who works for them. This power is to issue warrants to compliance officers. You can think of a warrant like a special permission slip that allows compliance officers to do their job.

When a territorial authority or water organisation gives away some of their power, they can limit what the other person can do with it. They can also add conditions that the person must follow when using this power.

The territorial authority or water organisation must decide how they will limit or add conditions to the power before they give it away. Even if they give away some of their power, they are still responsible for making sure everything gets done. You can find more information about this by looking at the legislation that this law is compared to.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1443393.

Topics:
Government and voting > Local councilsEnvironment and resources > Food and water safety
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290: Authority to act, or

"Compliance officers need a special paper to enter private land"

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292: Continuation of powers of entry and inspection without search warrants, or

"Compliance officers can keep inspecting without a search warrant if they already found rule-breaking evidence"

Part 5Miscellaneous provisions
Compliance and enforcement: Power to obtain information

291Delegation of power to issue warrants to compliance officers

  1. A territorial authority or water organisation may delegate to a committee or member or officer of the territorial authority or water organisation the power to provide warrants to compliance officers.

  2. A delegation under subsection (1) may—

  3. limit or restrict the exercise of the power; or
    1. impose conditions on the exercise of the power; or
      1. prohibit, in specified circumstances, the exercise of the power.

        1. The territorial authority or water organisation must determine the matters in subsection (2) before acting under subsection (1).

        2. To avoid doubt,—

        3. a delegation does not relieve the territorial authority or water organisation of the liability or legal responsibility to perform or ensure performance of any function or duty; and
          1. the delegation powers in this section are in addition to any power of delegation a territorial authority or water organisation has under any other enactment.

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