Commentary on Sections and Schedules Part 1: the Statistics Board Section 47 Power to authorise disclosure to the Board
195.This section sets out a mechanism for providing the Board with wider access to information held by public authorities. The section creates a power for the Minister for the Cabinet Office to make regulations authorising the disclosure of information from a public authority to the Board to enable it to carry out its functions (except its function of providing statistical services).
196.This is a similar provision to section 51, which provides a similar mechanism for the Board to disclose information to other public authorities. The note to section 51 gives an example of how this mechanism could work in practice.
197.The power under section 47 could be used, for example, to provide the Board with wider access to information, to improve the range or quality of the statistics being produced, potentially improving policy-making or resource allocation. It could also be used to reduce the burden on information providers, for example on individuals or businesses of filling in surveys, by removing the need to collect information already held by Government.
198.Any gateways created by regulations made under this mechanism would be permissive rather than mandatory; that is, the public authority would be permitted to share the information, but not compelled to do so.
199.Subsection (1) provides that the Minister for the Cabinet Office may make regulations permitting a public authority (as defined in section 67) to share information with the Board, where this would not be lawful prior to the making of the regulations, either because of a legal barrier to information sharing or because the public authority would not otherwise have the power to share information with the Board.
200.Regulations may only remove a barrier contained in the rule of law or an Act which received Royal Assent before this Act (although, as set out in section 54, they may not amend either the Data Protection Act 1998 or the Human Rights Act 1998).
201.Subsection (2) states that the regulations may only authorise the Board to use the information received in pursuit of its functions, except in connection with its function of providing statistical services, and subsection (3) sets out that the Board may only use the information received for the purpose stated in the regulations. Unlike the similar section 51, there is no explicit requirement that the information be used only for statistical purposes; this is because all of the Board’s functions are statistical.
202.The Board will not be permitted to disclose information received, other than in the circumstances set out in section 39(4), with the exception of paragraphs (c) and (i), unless further disclosure is specified for in the regulations. Any unauthorised disclosure of information would breach the confidentiality obligation under section 39 and incur the criminal penalties provided in that section.
203.Subsection (8) states that the regulations may only be made with the consent of another Minister of the Crown (or the Welsh Ministers in the circumstances set out in subsection (8)(a) or the Treasury in the circumstances set out in subsection (8)(b)). The Minister consenting will usually be the Minister responsible for the public authority disclosing the information. For example in the case of information produced by DEFRA or the Environment Agency, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs would need to consent.
204.Subsection (9) requires that the Minister for the Cabinet Office and the other Minister of the Crown or persons consenting to the regulations, be content that the information is needed for the purpose stated in the regulation and that the disclosure or use of the information is in the public interest.
205.Where the information is being disclosed to the Board by a public authority for which the Minister for the Cabinet Office is the relevant Minister, subsection (10) states that no other Minister need give consent to the making of the regulation. The public authorities for which the Minister for the Cabinet Office is to be regarded as the relevant Minister for will be set out by order – these are expected to be those public authorities that have the Cabinet Office as their sponsoring department.
206.Subsection (12) requires that the Treasury must consult the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs before giving its consent to the making of regulations (under subsection (8)(b)).