Interviews during access

During an access visit, we may ask you questions which are incidental to the conduct of our access – for example, questions about the location of records and how we can obtain them. You are required to answer these questions, but we cannot insist on answers to other questions that are unrelated to our access.

In practice, many interviews proceed on a cooperative basis without us needing to use our formal powers. We can only ask you questions that go beyond our access visit if:

• we have advised you that there is no compulsion to answer
• you agree to answer the questions.

Our questioning must be undertaken in good faith and for the purposes of the law we are administering. We will not persist if you object.

If we have reasonable grounds to seek further information and you are unwilling to supply it on a cooperative basis, we may consider using our formal powers to obtain it.