Finance Act 1989

182 Disclosure of information.U.K.

(1)A person who discloses any information which he holds or has held in the exercise of tax functions [F1, tax credit functions] [F2, child trust fund functions] [F3or social security functions] is guilty of an offence if it is information about any matter relevant, for the purposes of [F4any of those functions—

(a)to tax or duty in the case of any identifiable person,

[F5(aa)to a tax credit in respect of any identifiable person,]

[F6(ab)to a child trust fund of any identifiable person,]

(b)to contributions payable by or in respect of any identifiable person, or

(c)to statutory sick pay [F7, statutory maternity pay, [F8statutory paternity pay,] statutory adoption pay] [F9, statutory shared parental pay or statutory parental bereavement pay] in respect of any identifiable person.]

(2)In this section “tax functions” means functions relating to tax or duty—

(a)of the Commissioners, the Board and their officers,

(b)of any person carrying out the administrative work of [F10the First-tier Tribunal or Upper Tribunal], and

(c)of any other person providing, or employed in the provision of, services to any person mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) above.

[F11(2ZA)In this section “tax credit functions” means the functions relating to tax credits—

(a)of the Board,

(b)of any person carrying out the administrative work of the [F12the First-tier Tribunal or Upper Tribunal], and

(c)of any other person providing, or employed in the provision of, services to the Board or to any person mentioned in paragraph (b) above.]

[F13(2ZB)In this section “child trust fund functions” means the functions relating to child trust funds—

(a)of the Board and their officers,

(b)of any person carrying out the administrative work of the [F14First-tier Tribunal or an appeal tribunal constituted under Chapter 1 of Part 2 of the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Order 1998], or

(c)of any person providing, or employed in the provision of, services to the Board or any person mentioned in paragraph (b) above.]

[F15(2A) In this section “social security functions” means—

(a)the functions relating to contributions, [F16child benefit, guardian’s allowance,] statutory sick pay [F17, statutory maternity pay, [F18statutory paternity pay,] statutory adoption pay] [F19, statutory shared parental pay or statutory parental bereavement pay]—

(i)of the Board and their officers,

(ii)of any person carrying out the administrative work of the [F20the First-tier Tribunal or Upper Tribunal], and

(iii)of any other person providing, or employed in the provision of, services to any person mentioned in sub-paragraph (i) or (ii) above, and

(b)the functions under Part III of the Pension Schemes Act 1993 or Part III of the Pension Schemes (Northern Ireland) Act 1993 of the Board and their officers and any other person providing, or employed in the provision of, services to the Board or their officers.]

F21(3). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(4)A person who discloses any information which—

(a)he holds or has held in the exercise of functions—

(i)of the Comptroller Auditor General [F22, of the National Audit Office and any member or employee of that Office or of any member of the staff of the National Audit Office that was established by section 3 of the National Audit Act 1983], F23. . .

[F24(ia)of the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland and any member of the staff of the Northern Ireland Audit Office,]

(ii)of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and his officers,

[F25(iii)of the Auditor General for Wales and any member of his staff, F26...

[F27(iiia)of the Wales Audit Office and any member or employee of that Office,]

[F28(iv)of the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales and any member of his staff, or]]

(v)[F29of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman and any member of his staff,]

(b)is, or is derived from, information which was held by any person in the exercise of tax functions [F30, tax credit functions] [F31, child trust fund functions] [F32or social security functions], and

(c)is information about any matter relevant, for the purposes of [F33tax functions [F34, tax credit functions] [F35, child trust fund functions] or social security functions—

(i)to tax or duty in the case of any identifiable person,

[F36(ia)to a tax credit in respect of any identifiable person,]

[F37(ib)to a child trust fund of any identifiable person,]

(ii)to contributions payable by or in respect of any identifiable person, or

(iii)to [F38child benefit, guardian’s allowance,] statutory sick pay [F39, statutory maternity pay, [F40statutory paternity pay,] statutory adoption pay] [F41, statutory shared parental pay or statutory parental bereavement pay] in respect of any identifiable person]

is guilty of an offence.

(5)Subsections (1) and (4) above do not apply to any disclosure of information—

(a)with lawful authority,

(b)with the consent of any person in whose case the information is about a matter relevant to tax or duty [F42, to a tax credit or to a child trust fund] [F43or to contributions, statutory sick pay [F44, statutory maternity pay, [F45statutory paternity pay,] statutory adoption pay]] [F46, statutory shared parental pay or statutory parental bereavement pay], or

(c)which has been lawfully made available to the public before the disclosure is made.

(6)For the purposes of this section a disclosure of any information is made with lawful authority if, and only if, it is made—

(a)by a Crown servant in accordance with his official duty,

(b)by any other person for the purposes of the function in the exercise of which he holds the information and without contravening any restriction dulyimposed by the person responsible,

(c)to, or in accordance with an authorisation duly given by, the person responsible,

(d)in pursuance of any enactment or of any order of a court, or

(e)in connection with the institution of or otherwise for the purposes of any proceedings relating to any matter within the general responsibility of the Commissioners or, as the case requires, the Board,

and in this subsection “the person responsible” means the Commissioners, the Board, the Comptroller [F47and Auditor General, the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland] [F48, the Parliamentary Commissioner, the Auditor General for Wales [F49, [F50the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales] or the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman],] as the case requires.

(7)It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to prove that at the time of the alleged offence—

(a)he believed that he had lawful authority to make the disclosure in question and had no reasonable cause to believe otherwise, or

(b)he believed that the information in question had been lawfully made available to the public before the disclosure was made and had no reasonablecause to believe otherwise.

(8)A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—

(a)on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or a fine or both, and

(b)on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or both.

(9)No prosecution for an offence under this section shall be instituted in England and Wales or in Northern Ireland except—

(a)by the Commissioners or the Board, as the case requires, or

(b)by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions or, in Northern Ireland, the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland.

(10)In this section—

• “the Board” means the Commissioners of Inland Revenue,

• [F51“child trust fund” has the same meaning as in the Child Trust Funds Act 2004,]

• “the Commissioners” means the Commissioners of Customs and Excise,

• [F52“contributions” means contributions under Part I of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 or Part I of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992;]

• “Crown servant” has the same meaning as in the M1 Official Secrets Act 1989,

• [F53“tax credit” means a tax credit under the Tax Credits Act 2002,] and

• “tax or duty” means any tax or duty within the general responsibility of the Commissioners or the Board.

[F54(10A)In this section, in relation to the disclosure of information “identifiable person” means a person whose identity is specified in the disclosure or can be deduced from it.]

(11)In this section—

F55(a). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

F55(b). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(c)references to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration include the Health Service Commissioner for EnglandF56... , F57... the [F58Assembly Ombudsman for Northern Ireland] and the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Complaints.

[F59(11A)In this section, references to [F60statutory paternity pay,] statutory adoption pay [F61, statutory shared parental pay or statutory parental bereavement pay] include statutory pay under Northern Ireland legislation corresponding to Part 12ZA [F62, Part 12ZB [F63, Part 12ZC or Part 12ZD]] of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 (c. 4).]

(12)This section shall come into force on the repeal of section 2 of the M2 Official Secrets Act 1911.