21Rules for providing information without individual's consentU.K.
(1)Under sections 17 to 20 the Secretary of State may provide a person with information within paragraph 2 of Schedule 1 only if he is satisfied that it would not have been reasonably practicable for the person to whom the information is provided to have obtained the information by other means.
(2)The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision—
(a)imposing requirements that must be satisfied before information is provided under any of sections 17 to 20; and
(b)restricting the persons who may be authorised to act on his behalf for or in connection with the provision of information under any of those sections.
(3)Those regulations may include—
(a)provision requiring a person to be provided with information only where an application for it has been made by or on behalf of that person;
(b)provision specifying or describing the persons who are entitled to make applications for the provision of information to a person; and
(c)provision imposing other requirements as to the manner in which such applications must be made.
(4)The Secretary of State may by regulations make it a condition of providing information to a person—
(a)that that person (where not specified in sections 17 to 20) and the applicant for the information (where different) are for the time being approved by the Secretary of State in the prescribed manner; and
(b)that apparatus used for the purposes of the application, and apparatus that it is proposed to use for the receipt and storage of the information, is for the time being approved in the prescribed manner by the person specified in or determined under the regulations.
(5)The Secretary of State may also by regulations provide that information that may be provided to a person under any of sections 17 to 20 may be provided instead to another person who—
(a)is authorised by that person to be a recipient of information provided under that section;
(b)holds such office, rank or position as may be specified in the regulations; and
(c)is under the direction or control of that person, or is otherwise answerable or subordinate to him, in respect of any of his duties as a person holding that office, rank or position.
(6)A power of the Secretary of State under any of sections 17 to 20 to provide information about an individual to another person is exercisable only where the provision of the information is subject to the satisfaction in relation to that other person of conditions imposed under subsection (4)(a).
(7)The Secretary of State must not make regulations containing (with or without other provision) any provision that he is authorised to make by this section unless a draft of the regulations has been laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House.