Section 6 replaces and strengthens the Department’s existing power to monitor registered housing associations contained in Article 21 of the Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1992. The Department may now serve a notice requiring information which would assist it in discharging its functions on a wider class of person than was previously the case. The new Articles make provision in connection with the procedural matters for the notice; provide for penalties and other ancillary matters in the case of a failure to comply with the notice; provide a statutory power for specified persons to disclose to the Department information received by them in the course: of their duties; make provision for the Department to disclose information which relates to a registered housing association for specified purposes and to specified persons, and also prescribe penalties for disclosure not in accordance with these provisions.