COMMENTARY ON SECTIONS Section 16: Restriction on disclosure of information
33.This section restricts the disclosure of information provided by a complainant or any other person to the Commissioner in relation to a complaint. Neither the Commissioner nor anyone working for the Commissioner may disclose such information except to the extent that this is necessary to enable to the Commissioner to discharge his or her functions under the Measure (for example as part of the Commissioner’s report to the Committee on Standards of Conduct), comply with any other statutory obligation (such as under the Data Protection Act 1998) or the investigation of any criminal offence. No specific sanction is prescribed but unauthorised disclosure would expose the culprit to civil action in a number of ways (see for example paragraph 34).