Article 19 of the Saudi Standards and Quality Law

This article protects the inspector's work, and prohibits two things:

• Preventing the inspector from carrying out his inspection and detection work.
• Obstructing him from carrying out this work.

Who is the inspector? Under Article 1, he is a person appointed by decision of the Authority's board of directors to record violations of the law and regulations. Under Article 18, inspectors detect violations, investigate them and document them.

Scope of the prohibition: the prohibition concerns the inspector's work "relating to inspection and detection". Prevention includes, for example, refusing to let the inspector carry out his task, and obstruction includes acts that disrupt or complicate his work. The text does not list the forms of prevention or obstruction exhaustively.

What the article does not contain: the article does not specify a particular penalty for preventing or obstructing the inspector. The text shown here does not mention a specific penalty for violating this article.

Balance with the establishment's rights: in return for this prohibition, Article 20 requires the inspector to keep confidential the information he obtains by virtue of his work, so an establishment that cooperates with inspection enjoys protection of the confidentiality of its information.

Someone who believes an inspection has exceeded its limits may consult a lawyer who specializes in administrative cases, rather than preventing or obstructing the inspector.