Parties under investigation should be informed, at an appropriate time in an investigation, of the scope of an investigation. This allows them effectively to exercise certain rights of defence, such as the right to be represented by legal counsel. When OLAF requests information from a party under investigation, or interviews the party under investigation, it should inform that party of the scope of the investigation. In order to understand the scope of the investigation, however, it is only necessary that the person concerned understands the nature of the allegations made against him or her. It is not necessary to provide that person with a detailed account of the evidence gathered thus far in support of those allegations.

When all of the evidence has been gathered, and a decision adversely affecting a person is about to be taken, the right to be heard then requires that the person concerned be given the opportunity to comment on the evidence to be used for the purposes of that decision. The scope of the information transferred to the person concerned in order to allow that person to understand the scope of an inquiry is thus less extensive than the scope of the information that must be transferred to a person to allow that person to exercise the right to be heard.