Commentary on Sections Section 4 - Provision of information by third parties
13.Section 4 of the Act specifies that the regulations (which may be made under section 2) may make provision for certain persons specified in the section (see below) to provide information to the Welsh Ministers or a person providing services to them. The information in question must be specified in the regulations, or described in them, and can only be dealt with in this way if the Welsh Ministers consider it is needed for determining eligibility for funding under section 1 of the Act.
14.The regulations may permit HMRC, a government department or a Minister of the Crown (or a person providing services to any of them) to provide the Welsh Ministers (or a person providing services to the Welsh Ministers) with any information of this kind. But this will be subject to the “appropriate Minister” consenting to this: the meaning of “appropriate Minister” is set out in section 4(6).
15.A local authority, or a person providing services to a local authority, may be either required or permitted by the regulations to provide information of this kind to the Welsh Ministers or to a person providing services to them. (In other words, in this context, but not in that described in paragraph 13 a requirement to provide information may be imposed).