Any person who holds records of convictions, cautions or other information for the use of police forces generally must make those records available to Ministers for the purposes of enabling or assisting them to perform their functions under this Part.

F2 The chief constable must, as soon as practicable, comply with a request by Ministers to provide them with information of the type described in section 49(1)(c) for the purposes of enabling or assisting them to perform their functions under this Part.

F3The chief constable must not provide information to Ministers under subsection (2) if the F4 chief constable thinks that disclosing that information to the individual to whom it relates would be contrary to the interests of the prevention or detection of crime.

Ministers must pay the F5 Scottish Police Authority such fee as Ministers think appropriate for information provided under subsection (2).

No proceedings are competent against Ministers by reason of an inaccuracy in the information made available or provided to them in accordance with this section or section 63(4) F1 (or in pursuance of any other power or duty to provide information to Ministers in relation to their functions under this Part) .