Commentary on Sections Sharing of social security information Section 40: Unlawful disclosure of certain information
Article 7 of the HSS Order makes it an offence for a person to disclose without lawful authority information supplied by virtue of Article 6 of that Order. Section 40 will create a similar unlawful disclosure provision in relation to information received by virtue of section 39.
Subsection (2) sets out that the Supporting People team and those providing welfare services are included within the provision of this section. Relevant persons in the Department are not covered by this provision as there is an existing unlawful disclosure provision which applies to them (section 117 of the Administration Act).
This section complements section 117 of the Administration Act and subsections (3) to (5) of this section follow the wording of that section.