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Parliament Act 2025

Parliamentary security - Powers and duties of parliamentary security officers - Powers and duty relating to examining and seizing detected items, and process to be followed

171: Power to ask to examine detected items

You could also call this:

"Parliamentary security officers can ask to check items they find during a search"

Illustration for Parliament Act 2025

You can be asked to hand over items found during a search by a parliamentary security officer. This can happen right after the search. The officer will look at the item to check if it is a problem. If you do not give the officer the item, they must follow the rules in section 172. If you do give the officer the item, they will check if it is a problem. They will follow the rules in section 173, section 174, or section 176 if it is. The officer can only ask for the item right after the search. You will be asked to hand over the item so the officer can check it. The officer will decide what to do next based on what they find.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS918275.

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Government and voting > Local councilsCrime and justice > Police and safety
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Part 7Parliamentary security
Powers and duties of parliamentary security officers: Powers and duty relating to examining and seizing detected items, and process to be followed

171Power to ask to examine detected items

  1. A parliamentary security officer may ask a person whose person or property is searched under section 169 to hand over to the officer any item detected during the search so that the officer may examine it.

  2. A parliamentary security officer may exercise the power in subsection (1) immediately after the search but no later.

  3. If the person does not comply with the request, the parliamentary security officer must apply section 172.

  4. If the person complies with the request and the item handed over gives the parliamentary security officer reasonable grounds to believe the matters specified in—

  5. section 173 (which relates to the officer having reasonable grounds to believe that the person may recently have committed, or may be about to commit, a specified offence), the officer must apply that section; or
    1. section 174 (which relates to the officer having reasonable grounds to believe that the item is capable of being used to commit a violent offence or that it would otherwise be dangerous to allow the person to keep the item), the officer must apply that section; or
      1. section 176 (which relates to the officer having reasonable grounds to believe that the item may constitute a threat to the security of the parliamentary precincts), the officer must apply that section.

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