Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007

97 Departmental information requests

(1) A departmental information request is a request for the disclosure of information held by, or on behalf of, a government department.

(2) The request is to be made to the Minister of the Crown, or other person, who is in charge of the department.

(3) In the case of a request made to the designated Secretary of State, the disclosure of some or all of the following information may be requested—

(a) the full name of the debtor;

(b) the address of the debtor;

(c) the date of birth of the debtor;

(d) the national insurance number of the debtor;

(e) prescribed information.

(4) In the case of a request made to the Commissioners, the disclosure of some or all of the following information may be requested—

(a) whether or not the debtor is employed;

(b) the name and address of the employer (if the debtor is employed);

(c) the national insurance number of the debtor;

(d) prescribed information.

(5) In the case of any other request, the disclosure of prescribed information may be requested.

(6) In this section—

• “designated Secretary of State” means the Secretary of State designated for the purpose of this section by regulations;

• “government department” does not include the following—

  (a)

  any part of the Scottish Administration;

  (b)

  a Northern Ireland department;

  (c)

  the Welsh Assembly Government or any member of staff appointed under section 52 of the Government of Wales Act 2006 (c. 32);

• “prescribed information”, in relation to a departmental information request, means information that falls within the category or categories of information (if any) prescribed by regulations in relation to the department to which the request relates.