Commentary on Clauses Section 41: Disclosure of information to Director of Revenue and Customs Prosecutions
251.Subsections (1) and (2) of the section lists the persons, other than HMRC, who may disclose information to RCPO for a purpose connected with a specific investigation or prosecution. This follows a standard format, being comparable with the list of persons who may disclose to the Asset Recovery Agency, under section 436 Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, modified to reflect the imminent creation of the Serious Organised Crime Agency, which is intended to subsume the functions of the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) and the National Crime Squad (NCS).
252.Subsection (2)(h) and subsection (3) provide that the Attorney General may by Order, subject to affirmative resolution by both Houses of Parliament, add other persons exercising public functions to the list. Under subsection (4), this power will, as regards Northern Ireland in the longer term, be exercisable by the Advocate General for Northern Ireland. But it will be exercised by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland until the commencement of section 27(1) of the Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 2002. And as regards Scotland, under subsection (5), references to the Attorney General are to be read as references to a Minister of the Crown (including the Treasury).
253.Finally, subsection (6) again declares, in parallel with the equivalent provision in section 22, that nothing in section 41 authorises any disclosure in contravention of the Data Protection Act 1998, or Part 1 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. There is no intention to do so, but the section puts the issue beyond any possible doubt.