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Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003

Section 136: Disclosure of information obtained by CHAI; and section 137: defence

295.Section 136(2) makes it a criminal offence for any person, including a member or employee of the CHAI, to knowingly or recklessly disclose confidential information that relates to or identifies an individual.

296.Subsections (1) to (3) of section 137 set out a defence to the offence in section 136. It is a defence to prove that any of the circumstances listed in subsection (2) applied or that the person charged reasonably believed that they applied. It is also a defence to prove that the disclosure was made for a purpose in subsection (3). One of the circumstances in subsection (2) is where the disclosure is made in a form in which the individual to which the information relates is not identified. Subsection (4) sets out when an individual is to be regarded as identified for the purposes of this defence.

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