The Digital Government (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2018

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations relate to the disclosure of information in relation to public service delivery, pursuant to Chapter 1 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 (c. 30) (“the Act”).

Regulation 2 specifies the objectives set out in the Schedule for the purposes of improving public service delivery. This permits the specified persons identified from the list of specified persons set out in Schedule 4 to the Act to share information for the purposes of each objective.

The Schedule sets out four objectives. The multiple disadvantages objective enables the disclosure of information to enable the identification of individuals or households who face multiple disadvantages. The television retuning objective enables the disclosure of information in order to identify individuals and households and offer support under a television retuning scheme to individuals affected by changes to radio frequencies currently used by terrestrial television broadcasts at 470-790 MHz. The fuel poverty and water poverty objectives enable the disclosure of information for the purposes of assisting people living in fuel poverty and water poverty as defined in sections 36(10) and 38(10) of the Act.

Regulation 3 amends the list of fuel poverty measures in section 36(3) of the Act to include measures imposed by the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority that restrict the charges levied on domestic customers by licensed gas and electricity suppliers. Information cannot be disclosed to licensed gas and electricity suppliers under section 36 of the Act unless it is for use by them in connection with one of the fuel poverty measures listed.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sectors is foreseen.