PART 5

Meetings and proceedings

Supplemental provisions
25
1
Provisions in this Part which require the publication of documents by a corporate joint committee do not require or authorise the doing of any act which infringes the copyright in any work except that, where the owner of the copyright is the corporate joint committee, nothing done in pursuance of those provisions constitutes an infringement of the copyright.
2
Where any provision of this Part requires a copy of a document to be supplied to any person, a person (“P”), having the custody of a document, commits an offence if P, without reasonable excuse, refuses to furnish a copy to the person entitled to obtain it.
3
An offence under paragraph (2) is punishable on summary conviction by a fine not exceeding level 1 on the standard scale.
4
Where any accessible document for a CJC meeting or a meeting of a sub-committee of a corporate joint committee is—
a
supplied to a member of the public,
b
published electronically, or
c
supplied for the benefit of any news media organisation,
the publication thereby of any defamatory material contained in the document is privileged unless the publication is proved to be made with malice.
5
For the purposes of paragraph (4), the “accessible documents” for a CJC meeting or a meeting of a sub-committee of a corporate joint committee are—
a
any copy of the agenda or of any item included in the agenda for the meeting;
b
any further statements or particulars for the purpose of indicating the nature of any item included in the agenda as are mentioned in regulation 18(9)(b);
c
any copy of a document relating to such an item which is supplied for the benefit of a news media organisation in pursuance of regulation 18(9)(c);
d
any copy of the whole or part of a report for the meeting;
e
any copy of the whole or part of any background papers for a report for the meeting;
f
the note required to be published under regulation 20(3).
6
The rights conferred by this Part to inspect, copy and be furnished with documents are in addition, and without prejudice, to any such rights conferred by or under any other enactment.