Part 6Legal Complaints

Information

151Restricted information

(1)

Except as provided by section 152, restricted information must not be disclosed—

(a)

by a restricted person, or

(b)

by any person who receives the information directly or indirectly from a restricted person.

(2)

In this section and section 152—

restricted information” means information (other than excluded information) which is obtained by a restricted person in the course of, or for the purposes of, an investigation into a complaint made under the ombudsman scheme (including information obtained for the purposes of deciding whether to begin such an investigation or in connection with the settlement of a complaint);

restricted person” means—

(a)

the OLC,

(b)

an ombudsman, or

(c)

a person who exercises functions delegated under paragraph 22 of Schedule 15.

(3)

For the purposes of subsection (2) “excluded information” means—

(a)

information which is in the form of a summary or collection of information so framed as not to enable information relating to any particular person to be ascertained from it;

(b)

information which at the time of the disclosure is or has already been made available to the public from other sources;

(c)

information which was obtained more than 70 years before the date of the disclosure.