General
17Protection from actions for defamation
1
For the purposes of the law of defamation—
a
any statement made by the Commission—
i
in conducting an inquiry,
ii
in communicating with any person for the purposes of an inquiry, or
iii
in a report of an inquiry,
has absolute privilege,
b
any other statement made by it in pursuance of the purposes of this Act has qualified privilege, and
c
any statement made to it in pursuance of those purposes has qualified privilege.
2
In subsection (1), “statement” has the same meaning as in the Defamation Act 1996 (c. 31).