Commentary on Sections Part 1: Pension scheme membership for jobholders Chapter 4: Supplementary provision about compliance and information sharing Section 64: Penalty for disclosure
153.Section 64 increases the maximum sentence on summary conviction for officials, contractors or any other people who directly or indirectly receive restricted information from the Pensions Regulator and who disclose such information without authorisation. Such unauthorised disclosure is already a criminal offence under section 82(5) of the PA 2004. This section makes anyone who is convicted of this offence in a magistrates’ court liable to a prison term of up to a year (rather than a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, which was the previous extent of a magistrates’ court’s powers for this offence). This may be imposed together with, or instead of, a fine up to the statutory maximum.