Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005

33 Disclosure of information by SOCA

(1) Information obtained by SOCA in connection with the exercise of any of its functions may be disclosed by SOCA if the disclosure is for any permitted purposes.

(2) “Permitted purposes” means the purposes of any of the following—

(a) the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of criminal offences, whether in the United Kingdom or elsewhere;

(b) the prevention, detection or investigation of conduct for which penalties other than criminal penalties are provided under the law of any part of the United Kingdom or of any country or territory outside the United Kingdom;

(c) the exercise of any function conferred on SOCA by section 2, 3 or 5 (so far as not falling within paragraph (a) or (b));

(d) the exercise of any functions of any intelligence service within the meaning of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (c. 23);

(e) the exercise of any functions under Part 2 of the Football Spectators Act 1989 (c. 37);

(f) the exercise of any function which appears to the Secretary of State to be a function of a public nature and which he designates by order.

(3) A disclosure under this section does not breach—

(a) any obligation of confidence owed by the person making the disclosure, or

(b) any other restriction on the disclosure of information (however imposed).

(4) But nothing in this section authorises—

(a) a disclosure, in contravention of any provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 (c. 29), of personal data which are not exempt from those provisions,

(b) a disclosure which is prohibited by Part 1 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, or

(c) a disclosure in contravention of section 35(2).