Education and Skills Act 2008

15 Supply of social security information

(1) Social security information may be supplied to a local education authority in England for the purpose of enabling or assisting the authority to exercise its functions under this Part.

(2) In this section “social security information” means personal information about a person which is held for the purposes of functions relating to social security—

(a) by the Secretary of State, or

(b) by a person providing services to the Secretary of State in connection with the provision of those services.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2) “personal information”, in relation to a person, means—

(a) the person’s name, address and date of birth, and

(b) the name and address of a parent of the person.

(4) A person to whom information is supplied under subsection (1) commits an offence by disclosing the information unless the disclosure is made—

(a) for the purpose of enabling or assisting the exercise of any function of a local education authority under this Part,

(b) for the purpose of the provision of services in pursuance of section 68 or 70(1)(b),

(c) in accordance with section 17 or any other enactment or an order of a court or tribunal,

(d) for the purpose of actual or contemplated proceedings before a court or tribunal,

(e) with consent given by or on behalf of the person to whom the information relates, or

(f) in such a way as to prevent the identification of the person to whom it relates.

(5) It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section relating to a disclosure to prove that the person reasonably believed that the disclosure was lawful.

(6) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—

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

(b) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to both.

(7) In subsection (6)(b) the reference to 12 months is to be read in relation to an offence committed before the commencement of section 282 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (c. 44) (increase in maximum term that may be imposed on summary conviction of offence triable either way) as a reference to 6 months.