(This note is not part of the Order)
This Order prescribes certain persons and bodies for the purposes of the Official Secrets Act 1989. The effect of the Order is that those persons who are prescribed, under articles 2 and 3, taken with Schedules 1 and 2 respectively, become Crown servants for all purposes of the Act. The relevant persons are those listed in the right-hand column of Schedule 1 and in both columns of Schedule 2. Accordingly, the information which they hold by virtue of their position as persons prescribed by this Order becomes information to which the Act applies if it otherwise falls within the relevant sections (1 to 4 and 8), and such persons will be treated as if they were Crown servants for the purposes of the provisions of the Act relating to the prosecution of offenders and the authorisation of disclosures. Three bodies are prescribed under article 4, taken with Schedule 3. The Order enables them for the purposes of the Act to authorise or restrict disclosures and also, in one case, to direct the return or disposal of documents.
By virtue of article 1 this Order comes into force on the day on which the Act comes into force (1st March 1990).