The Merchant Shipping (Vessel Traffic Monitoring and Reporting Requirements) Regulations 2004

Confidentiality of information U.K.

16.— [F1 (1) Subject to paragraph (4), no authority or member of staff of an authority shall—

(a) disclose any confidential information which has been obtained by, or furnished to, that authority or member of staff, as the case may be, under or for the purposes of the Directive and these Regulations; or

(b) use any such information,

unless the disclosure or use is made with lawful justification.]

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1), a disclosure [F2 or use] of information is made with lawful justification only if, and to the extent that—

(a) the disclosure [F2 or use] is made for the purposes of, and is necessary for, the performance of any obligation under the Directive and these Regulations;

(b) the disclosure [F2 or use] is made with the consent of the person to whom, or to whose business, property or other assets, the information relates;

(c) the disclosure [F2 or use] is made for the purposes of any proceedings, whether criminal or civil; [F3 or]

(d) having regard to the rights and freedoms or legitimate interests of any person, the disclosure [F2 or use] is necessary in the public interest.

(3) In this regulation, “authority” means the MCA, Her Majesty’s Coastguard or a United Kingdom port authority.

(4) Paragraph (1) shall not apply in the case of information contained in an historical record.

(5) Where records created at different dates are for administrative purposes kept together in one file or other assembly, all the records in that file or other assembly are to be treated for the purposes of this regulation as having been created when the latest of those records was created.

(6) For the purposes of this regulation—

(a) a record becomes an “historical record” at the end of the period of thirty years beginning with the year following that in which it was created; and

(b) “year” means a calendar year.

Textual Amendments

F1 Reg. 16(1) substituted (25.11.2011) by The Merchant Shipping (Vessel Traffic Monitoring and Reporting Requirements)(Amendment) Regulations 2011 (S.I. 2011/2616), reg. 1, Sch. 1 para. 16(a)

F2 Words in reg. 16(2) inserted (25.11.2011) by The Merchant Shipping (Vessel Traffic Monitoring and Reporting Requirements)(Amendment) Regulations 2011 (S.I. 2011/2616), reg. 1, Sch. 1 para. 16(b)

F3 Word in reg. 16(2)(c) added (2.1.2009) by The Merchant Shipping (Vessel Traffic Monitoring and Reporting Requirements) (Amendment) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/3145), regs. 1, 3(e)