Part IVU.K. Miscellaneous and General

33 Restriction of disclosure of information.E+W+S

(1)No information obtained under this Act or any of its predecessors shall be disclosed except—

(a)with the consent of the person by whom it was supplied or, as the case may be, carrying on the undertaking or business to which the books, records or other documents from which it was obtained related; or

(b)in the form of a summary of information supplied by, or obtained from documents relating to undertakings or businesses carried on by, a number of persons, being a summary so framed as not to enable particulars relating to the business of individual persons to be ascertained therefrom; or

(c). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F1

(d)with a view to the institution of, or otherwise for the purposes of, any criminal proceedings pursuant to, or arising out of, this Act or any of its predecessors.

(2)Nothing contained in a forecast obtained under this Act or any of its predecessors shall be disclosed except—

(a)with the consent of the person by whom the forecast was supplied;

(b)in the form of a summary of forecasts supplied by a number of persons, being a summary framed as mentioned in subsection (1)(b) above;

(c). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F2; or

(d)as mentioned in subsection (1)(d) above.

(3)If a disclosure is made by a person in contravention of subsection (1) or (2) above he shall be guilty of an offence and liable—

(a)on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or to both;

(b)on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to a fine, or to both.

(4)For the purposes of this section the predecessors of this Act are the M1Iron and Steel Act 1949, the M2Iron and Steel Act 1953, the M3Iron and Steel Act 1967 and the M4Iron and Steel Act 1975.

Textual Amendments

Marginal Citations