Commentary on Sections Part 3: Other Measures to Prevent or Disrupt Serious and Other Crime Chapter 1: Prevention of Fraud.Sharing information with anti-fraud organisations Section 71: Code of practice for disclosure of information to prevent fraud
237.Subsection (1) requires the Secretary of State to prepare and keep under review a code of practice with respect to the disclosure, for the purpose of preventing fraud, of information by public authorities as members of specified anti-fraud organisations or otherwise in accordance with any arrangements made by such organisations. Subsection (2) requires the Secretary of State to consult any specified anti-fraud organisation, the Information Commissioner and other such persons as the Secretary of State considers appropriate when preparing or altering the code. Subsection (3) requires public authorities disclosing information for the purposes of preventing fraud, or a particular kind of fraud, as a member of a specified anti-fraud organisation to have regard to the code. Subsection (4) provides that nothing in this section applies in relation to any disclosure by a relevant public authority of information whose subject matter is a matter about which provision would be within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament if it were included in an Act of the Scottish Parliament. Subsection (5) requires the Secretary of State to lay a copy of the code and any alterations to it before Parliament and publish it. Subsection (6) explains that the definitions of ‘information’, ‘public authority’, ‘relevant public authority’ and ‘specified anti-fraud organisation’ have the same meaning as in section 68.