Digital Economy Act 2017

79 Disclosure of information by public authorities to the Statistics Board

(1) The Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 is amended as follows.

(2) After section 45 insert—

“45A Information held by other public authorities

(1) A public authority to which this section applies may, subject to this section, disclose to the Board any information held by the authority in connection with its functions.

(2) This section applies to a public authority other than—

(a) the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, or

(b) an officer of Revenue and Customs.

(3) A public authority may disclose information under subsection (1) only if it is satisfied that the Board requires the information to enable it to exercise one or more of its functions.

(4) In determining whether the condition in subsection (3) is met the public authority must have regard to any views of the Board which have been communicated to the authority.

(5) Information disclosed under subsection (1) may only be used by the Board for the purposes of any one or more of its functions.

(6) Information disclosed under subsection (1) may not be used by the Board for the purposes of its function under section 22 (statistical services) except with the consent of the public authority which disclosed the information.

(7) Where personal information is disclosed by a public authority to the Board under subsection (1), the Board may not disclose the information to an approved researcher under section 39(4)(i) except with the consent of the public authority.

(8) In disclosing information under subsection (1), a public authority must have regard to the following codes of practice issued by the Information Commissioner under section 51(3) of the Data Protection Act 1998, so far as they apply to the information in question—

(a) any code which makes provision about the identification and reduction of the risks to privacy of a proposal to disclose information;

(b) any code which makes provision about the information to be provided to data subjects (within the meaning of that Act) about the use to be made of information collected from them.

(9) The duty in subsection (8) to have regard to a code of practice does not affect any other requirement for the public authority to have regard to a code of practice under the Data Protection Act 1998 in disclosing the information.

(10) In determining how to comply with the duty in subsection (8) the public authority must have regard to any views of the Board which are communicated to the authority.

(11) A disclosure under subsection (1) does not breach—

(a) any obligation of confidence owed by the public authority making the disclosure, or

(b) any other restriction on the disclosure of information (however imposed).

(12) But subsection (1) does not authorise the making of a disclosure which—

(a) contravenes the Data Protection Act 1998,

(b) is prohibited by any of Parts 1 to 7 or Chapter 1 of Part 9 of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, or

(c) contravenes directly applicable EU legislation or any enactment to the extent that it implements EU legislation.

(13) Until the repeal of Part 1 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 by paragraphs 45 and 54 of Schedule 10 to the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 is fully in force, subsection (12)(b) has effect as if it included a reference to that Part.

(14) This section does not limit the circumstances in which information may be disclosed apart from this section.”

(3) Omit—

(a) section 47 (power to authorise disclosure to the Board);

(b) section 48 (power to authorise disclosure to the Board: Scotland);

(c) section 49 (power to authorise disclosure to the Board: Northern Ireland).

(4) In section 54 (Data Protection Act 1998 and Human Rights Act 1998) for “47” substitute “50”.

(5) In section 65 (orders and regulations)—

(a) in subsection (4) omit “47(11),”,

(b) in subsection (5)(b) omit “47,”,

(c) in subsection (6)(b) omit “48 or”, and

(d) in subsection (9)(c) omit “49 or”.

(6) In section 67 (general interpretation) for the definition of “enactment” substitute—

• ““enactment” includes—

  (a)

  an enactment contained in subordinate legislation within the meaning of the Interpretation Act 1978;

  (b)

  an enactment contained in, or in an instrument made under, an Act of the Scottish Parliament;

  (c)

  an enactment contained in, or in an instrument made under, a Measure or Act of the National Assembly for Wales;

  (d)

  an enactment contained in, or in an instrument made under, Northern Ireland legislation;”.