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).