Commentary on Sections Other purposes for which registered information can be provided Section 17: Public authorities etc.
116.This section gives a power to provide information held on the Register to certain persons for specified purposes without the consent of the registered person. Subsection (1) allows for this provision so long as it is authorised by this section and complies with section 21 (which sets out the rules for using information without an individual’s consent).
117.Subsection (2) provides that information may be provided without the consent of the individual, to specified national security and intelligence agencies for purposes connected with any of their functions. For example, the Security Service would be able to be provided with information for purposes connected with the protection of national security, the support of law enforcement agencies in the prevention and detection of serious crime and to safeguard the economic well-being of the United Kingdom, which are their statutory functions as set out in the Security Services Act 1989.
118.Subsection (3) provides a power to provide information apart from that specified within paragraph 9 of Schedule 1 (the audit log) to a chief officer of police, in the interests of national security, for the prevention or detection of crime or for other purposes as may be specified by order. Paragraph 9 of Schedule 1 (the audit log) records the details of each occasion on which there has been provision of information from a person’s Register entry, as opposed to “static” information held on the Register, such as place and date of birth.
119.A similar power is provided in subsection (4) for the provision of information without consent (except audit log information) to the Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs, in the interests of national security, for the purposes of prevention and detection of crime, for functions relating to national insurance contributions and for the other purposes connected with the Commissioners set out in subsection (4).
120.Where information does not fall within paragraph 9 of Schedule 1 (i.e. it is not audit log information), provision of that information is permitted if it is made to a prescribed government department or a Northern Ireland department in order to carry out prescribed functions of that department or of the Minister in charge of that department (subsection (5)). Regulations could therefore be made permitting the provision of information without consent to other parts of government or Northern Ireland departments, e.g. to the Department for Work and Pensions for investigation of social security fraud, or to the Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland in connection with social security benefits or national insurance numbers. Regulations allowing information to be provided under this power will be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure (subsection (8)).
121.Subsection (6) sets out the purposes for which information may be provided without consent to a designated documents authority that issues documents designated under section 4.
122.Subsection (7) limits the Secretary of State’s powers to authorise provision of information by subordinate legislation under this section to circumstances where provision is necessary in the public interest, as defined in section 1(4).
123.Subsection (9) defines terms used in section 17, in particular exactly who is covered by the term “chief officer of police”.
124.“Crime” is defined in section 42(1) with reference to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 which defines “crime” as “conduct which constitutes one or more criminal offences or is, or corresponds to, any conduct which, if it all took place in any one part of the United Kingdom would constitute one or more criminal offences”.
125.“Detection” is defined in section 42(1) and (9) with reference to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 which defines “detecting crime” as including “(a) establishing by whom, for what purpose, by what means and generally in what circumstances any crime was committed; and (b) the apprehension of the person by whom any crime was committed”.
126.Subsection (10) ensures that this section does not restrict any powers existing elsewhere to disclose information.