Section 30: Investigations and proceedings conducted by public authorities
108.Subsection (1) exempts, as a class, any information held at any time by a public authority for the purposes of a criminal investigation or criminal proceedings conducted by it.
109.Subsection (2) additionally exempts, as a class, information relating to the obtaining of information from confidential sources (informers) if it was obtained or recorded for the purposes of the authority’s functions relating to:
criminal investigations;
criminal proceedings;
the investigations referred to in section 31;
civil proceedings which arise from such investigations.
110.Subsection (3) provides that the obligation under section 1(1)(a) to confirm or deny that the requested information is held does not arise if the information is exempt by virtue of subsections (1) or (2).
111.Subsection (4) treats proceedings instituted or conducted by certain connected persons as being instituted or conducted by the public authority.
112.Subsection (5) provides that ‘criminal proceedings’ includes certain court-martial and disciplinary proceedings, and proceedings before a Courts-Martial Appeal Court and summary appeal courts and a Standing Civilian Court; corresponding provision is made in relation to ‘offence’.
113.Subsection (6) modifies this section in its application to Scotland, so as to take account of the different criminal procedure in Scotland.
