23 April 2021
254.This section lays out the conditions under which the Scottish Ministers or Redress Scotland may share information with third parties. There are four purposes for which information can be shared—
The first is to ask a third party to verify or authenticate evidence provided in connection with an application;
The second is to ask a third party to provide evidence relevant to a redress application;
The third is to ask a third party to provide details of any relevant payments made to a person or payments to which a person is entitled;
The fourth is to enable a scheme contributor to assess whether an individual in receipt of a redress payment has commenced legal proceedings against the scheme contributor in violation of section 46.
255.The third party to which information is disclosed may only use the information or disclose it to a further party for reasons consistent with the four purposes above and the further party may only use the information for the relevant purpose for which it was disclosed to them. For example, an organisation might inform their legal representative that an individual pursuing civil proceedings against the organisation has signed a waiver and therefore has no legal right to pursue the case. The legal representative may only use that information to provide advice to the organisation in question or take appropriate steps to protect the organisation’s legal interests.
256.Subsection (4) provides that the information which may be shared with a third party for the purposes discussed is only such information as the person sharing it considers is reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it is being shared, and a non-exhaustive list of what this might include is given. Subsections (5) and (6) clarify that this provision does not permit any party to share information in such a way as to contravene data protection law.