Mesothelioma Act 2014

8 Unauthorised disclosure of information: offence

(1) A person involved in the administration of the scheme must not, without lawful authority, disclose information which—

(a) was acquired in connection with the administration of the scheme, and

(b) relates to a particular person who is identified in the information or whose identity could be deduced from it.

(2) A disclosure is made with “lawful authority” only if—

(a) it is made for the purposes of the administration of the scheme,

(b) it is made for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime,

(c) it is made in accordance with any enactment or an order of a court or tribunal,

(d) it is made for the purposes of proceedings before a court or tribunal, or

(e) it is made with consent given by or on behalf of the person to whom the information relates or the person’s personal representatives.

(3) A person who breaches subsection (1) commits an offence (for penalties, see section 9).

(4) It is a defence for a person charged with the offence under subsection (3) to prove that he or she reasonably believed—

(a) that the disclosure was made with lawful authority, or

(b) that someone had, with lawful authority, previously disclosed the information to the public.

(5) In this section “person involved in the administration of the scheme” means a person who is or has been—

(a) the scheme administrator,

(b) a person providing services to the scheme administrator, or

(c) an officer or employee of a person within paragraph (a) or (b).