This section is concerned with the interpretation of sections 30 to 34. Subsection (1) states this as its purpose.
	Subsection (2) defines references to persons as having the meanings specified, including with reference to any acts (as applicable) regarding; "the Border Security Commander"; a "designated customs official"; "the Director of Border Revenue"; "HMRC"; and an "immigration officer".
	Subsection (3) defines a "UK authorised person" for the purposes of any information supplied under (a) section 30 (supply of customs information by HMRC) and (b) section 33 (supply of trailer registration information by the Secretary of State for Transport) and section 34 (onwards sharing of information shared under section 33), where a person in the first column of the subsequent table may be authorised to receive the information by the authorising officer specified in the corresponding entry in the second column of the table.
	Row 1 of column 1 defines the authorised person as "a constable or other person who is under the direction and control of a person who has the direction and control of a body of constables". With respect to constables, any constable, be they in a UK territorial police force, in a UK specialist police force (British Transport Police, Ministry of Defence Police and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary), a UK Ports Police body, and the Mersey Tunnels Police would be able to access trailer registration information if they were authorised to do so by the "authorising officer". Ports police constables include those sworn under section 79 of the Harbours, Docks and Piers Clauses Act 1847 , additionally under the Mersey Docks and Harbour (Police) Order 1975 for the Port of Liverpool Police; under section 154 of the Port of London Act 1968 for the Port of Tilbury Police; and under section 103 of the Tees and Hartlepools Port Authority Act 1966 for the Teesport and Hartlepool Harbour Police. Mersey Tunnels Police are sworn under section 105(2) of the County of Merseyside Act 1980 . Parks and cathedral constables are not within scope.
	The "other person" within the formulation refers to a person who might otherwise be described as "police staff" or "police civilian staff". Many police forces employ police staff as analysts or to work in control rooms. While there may for example be sworn constables in control rooms, it is not the intention to limit them to retaining sworn constables when it would be operationally more efficient for these roles to be undertaken by unwarranted police staff. This definition enables trailer registration information to be supplied not only to persons who are employed by the police pursuant to an employment contract (police civilian staff in the conventional sense), but also police volunteers and contractors, provided they are authorised to receive the information. This includes civil servants such as those employed by the Ministry of Defence and assigned to the MoD Police, those provided under section 4 of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 assigned to the Police Service of Northern Ireland, and NCA officers on secondment to a police force; subject in each case to being duly authorised by the authorising officer of that body of constables.
	In row 1 of column 2 the "authorising officer" for a constable or other person in column 1 is described as "the person under whose direction and control the constable or other person is". It is designed to take account of police bodies not led by a "Commissioner", a "Chief Constable" or a "Chief Officer" used elsewhere (as these have specific legal meanings) that exclude the commanders of Ports Police and the Mersey Tunnels Police. The formulation is expressly designed to include these latter types of police (as well as the former), critical as they are to policing maritime ports, and designated roads infrastructure near the Port of Liverpool.
	The Service Police provide investigatory (including for crime) and policing services to the Armed Forces. Row 2 of column 1 enables "a member of a service police force or other person" ("other person" such as a civil servant or a contractor) who is under the direction and control of the relevant Provost Marshal (of the Royal Navy Police, the Royal Military Police, the Royal Air Force Police, and the tri-service serious crime unit); and authorised to access to the data. Row 2 of column 2 defines the authorising officer as "the relevant Provost Marshal".
	Subsection (4) defines "constable" as being inclusive of special constable; and defines "relevant Provost Marshal" and "service police force" with respect to the Armed Forces Act 2006.
	Subsection (5) defines a "UK authorising officer" as (a) a person having the direction and control of a body of constables, and (b) a Provost Marshal.
	Subsections (6) and (7) define a "non-UK authorised person" and a "non-UK authorising officer" referred in subsection 33(8) with respect to Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Gibraltar where the "non-UK authorised person" in the first column of the table following (6) may be authorised by a "non-UK authorising officer" specified in the corresponding entry in the second column, to receive information supplied under section 33. The listed persons undertake work corresponding with their counterparts in the UK as specified in subsections 36(3) to (5) with respect to policing, law enforcement, customs, and immigration.
	Subsection (8) defines the meanings of purposes or functions referred in sections 30-34 with respect to; a "customs function"; a "general customs function"; "HMRC functions"; "human welfare purposes"; "immigration purposes"; "the law enforcement purposes"; and "NCA functions". Subsection (8) also confers a regulation making power on the Secretary of State to define "specified purposes related to policing". Before making regulations under subsection (8), subsection (9) places a duty upon the Secretary of State to consult; (a) the Scottish Ministers, (b) the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland, and (c) such persons appearing to the Secretary of State to represent the views of a body of constables in the United Kingdom as the Secretary of State considers appropriate. The intention is to ensure that both the Scottish Ministers and DoJ NI must always be consulted before regulations are made, but for the Secretary of State to retain discretion when considering which other persons connected with policing should be consulted.
Part 1: Border Security Sharing of information Section 36: Sections 30 to 34: interpretation