Commentary on Sections Other purposes for which registered information can be provided Section 18: Prevention and detection of crime
127.This section sets out other circumstances in which information from the Register may be provided without consent of the registered person.Subsection (1) provides a power for this provision so long as it is authorised in this section and section 21 is complied with.
128.Subsection (2) authorises the provision of information (other than audit log information) without consent for any of the purposes specified in sections 17(2)(a) to (d) of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 (which include provision for disclosing information for the purposes of criminal investigations or proceedings overseas), but only if section 21 is complied with.
129.Subsection (3) allows the Secretary of State to prohibit the provision of information without consent for use in overseas proceedings (under the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001) as specified in section 18 of that Act (which allows the Secretary of State to give a direction that would prohibit the provision of information that could be used for the purposes of any overseas proceedings that would otherwise occur under section 17 of that Act) e.g. the Secretary of State might do this if he considered that it would be more appropriate for these proceedings to be conducted in a United Kingdom court.
130.Provision of information falling within paragraph 9 of Schedule 1 (audit log information), is authorised if it is to the persons listed in section 17(3) to (5) of this Act and is for purposes connected with preventing or detecting serious crime or if it is authorised under section 18(2) for use in overseas criminal investigations or proceedings, and is concerned with the prevention and detection of serious crime. This applies a higher threshold where the information being disclosed relates to the audit log rather than simply to static information about name, address etc.
131.“Serious crime” is defined in section 42 with reference to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 which defines serious crime as a crime that “(a) involves the use of violence, results in substantial financial gain or is conducted by a large number of persons in pursuit of a common purpose, or (b) the offence or one of the offences is an offence for which a person who has attained the age of twenty-one and has no previous convictions could reasonably be expected to be sentenced to imprisonment for a term of three years or more”.