Part 5: Digital Government Chapter 1: Public Service Delivery Section 42: Information disclosed by the Revenue and Customs
This section sets out that a person (P) receiving personal information under sections 35, 36 or 38 from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs cannot disclose that personal information. This restriction on onward disclosure of personal information provided by the Revenue and Customs does not apply if the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs have given general or specific consent for the specific disclosure. Subsection (3) sets out that anyone who breaches this prohibition is guilty of an offence. Subsection (4) sets out a defence to the offence under subsection (3) where the person reasonably believed that the disclosure was lawful or that the information was already lawfully in the public domain. The criminal sanctions set out in section 19 of the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005, which prohibits the wrongful disclosure of Revenue and Customs’ information, will apply to an offence under subsection (3).