Part 1: The Small Business Commissioner Paragraph 17 – Exemption from liability for damages
This paragraph protects the Commissioner, any Deputy Commissioner or a member of staff nominated as an acting Commissioner, and any other staff from claims for damages by third parties, except where they have acted in bad faith or in breach of human rights. This covers things done in exercise of their functions, or where they believed they were exercising their functions. In the absence of this protection it might, for example, be possible for a business to claim against the Commissioner in the tort of negligence in relation to a decision on a complaint. The Government intends that the Commissioner should not be required to spend time, at public cost, in dealing with such claims. The Commissioner will however be subject to the normal public law duties and constraints of a public authority.