177.This section permits the Crown Prosecution Service or the police to disclose information to a regulator that has had the new sanctioning powers conferred on it. Information may only be disclosed where the regulator has an enforcement function in relation to a criminal offence and for the purposes of the regulator exercising one of the new powers. The police will not have access to the new sanctioning powers but if, for example, they have begun a criminal investigation but think that it no longer merits a criminal prosecution, this section would allow them to pass information to the regulator to determine whether to issue an alternative sanction.