18Disclosure of informationE+W
(1)The Commissioner may disclose to a person any information received by the Commissioner in connection with the Commissioner's functions if the disclosure is made for a purpose connected with a function of the Commissioner.
(2)A person may disclose any information to the Commissioner if the disclosure is made for the purposes of enabling or assisting the Commissioner to exercise any function.
(3)A disclosure of information authorised by this section does not breach—
(a)any obligation of confidence owed by the person making the disclosure in relation to that information, or
(b)any other restriction on the disclosure of information (however imposed).
(4)But nothing in this Part requires or authorises any of the following—
(a)the disclosure of any patient information (see subsection (5));
(b)the making of a disclosure which, although made in the exercise of a function under this Part, would contravene the data protection legislation (see subsection (6));
(c)the making of a disclosure which is prohibited by any of Parts 1 to 7 or Chapter 1 of Part 9 of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016.
(5)“Patient information” means information (however recorded) which—
(a)relates to—
(i)the physical or mental health or condition of an individual,
(ii)the diagnosis of an individual's condition, or
(iii)an individual's care or treatment,
or is (to any extent) derived directly or indirectly from information relating to any of those matters, and
(b)identifies the individual or enables the individual to be identified (either by itself or in combination with other information).
(6)In this section “the data protection legislation” has the same meaning as in the Data Protection Act 2018 (see section 3 of that Act).
(7)This section does not affect any power to disclose that exists apart from this section.
Commencement Information
I1S. 18 in force at 1.11.2021 by S.I. 2021/1038, reg. 3(b)