Part IV
- (a) the day on which the notice was given to the public authority, or
- (b) where an appeal under section 57 is brought, the day on which that appeal (or any further appeal arising out of it) is determined or withdrawn.
(5) Before making an order under subsection (1)(a)(iii), the Secretary of State shall—
- (a) if the order relates to a Welsh public authority, consult the National Assembly for Wales,
- (b) if the order relates to the Northern Ireland Assembly, consult the Presiding Officer of that Assembly, and
- (c) if the order relates to a Northern Ireland public authority, consult the First Minister and deputy First Minister in Northern Ireland.
(6) Where the accountable person gives a certificate to the Commissioner under subsection (2) in relation to a decision notice, the accountable person shall, on doing so or as soon as reasonably practicable after doing so, inform the person who is the complainant for the purposes of section 50 of the reasons for his opinion.
(7) The accountable person is not obliged to provide information under subsection (6) if, or to the extent that, compliance with that subsection would involve the disclosure of exempt information.
(8) In this section “the accountable person”—
- (a) in relation to a Northern Ireland department or any Northern Ireland public authority, means the First Minister and deputy First Minister in Northern Ireland acting jointly,
- (b) in relation to the National Assembly for Wales or any Welsh public authority, means the Assembly First Secretary, and
- (c) in relation to any other public authority, means—
- (i) a Minister of the Crown who is a member of the Cabinet, or
- (ii) the Attorney General, the Advocate General for Scotland or the Attorney General for Northern Ireland.
(9) In this section “working day” has the same meaning as in section 10.
Failure to comply with notice. 54.—(1) If a public authority has failed to comply with—
- (a) so much of a decision notice as requires steps to be taken,
- (b) an information notice, or
- (c) an enforcement notice,
the Commissioner may certify in writing to the court that the public authority has failed to comply with that notice.
(2) For the purposes of this section, a public authority which, in purported compliance with an information notice—
- (a) makes a statement which it knows to be false in a material respect, or
- (b) recklessly makes a statement which is false in a material respect,
is to be taken to have failed to comply with the notice.
