The Civil Aviation (Investigation of Air Accidents and Incidents) Regulations 1996

Disclosure of relevant records

18.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (2) and (4) to (6) below no relevant record shall be made available by the Secretary of State to any person for purposes other than accident or incident investigation.

(2) Nothing in paragraph (1) above shall preclude the Secretary of State making a relevant record available to any person where—

(a) in a case where that person is a party to or otherwise entitled to appear at judicial proceedings, the relevant court has ordered that the relevant record shall be made available to him for the purpose of those proceedings, or

(b) in any other circumstances, the relevant court has ordered that the relevant record shall be made available to him for the purpose of those circumstances.

(3) In this regulation—

• “judicial proceedings” includes any proceedings before any court, tribunal or person having by law power to hear, receive and examine evidence on oath,

• “relevant court” in the case of judicial proceedings or an application for disclosure made in England and Wales means the High Court, in the case of judicial proceedings or an application for disclosure made in Scotland means the Court of Session and in the case of judicial proceedings or an application for disclosure made in Northern Ireland means the High Court,

• “relevant record” means any item in the possession, custody or power of the Secretary of State which is of a kind referred to in sub-paragraphs (a) to (e) of paragraph 5.12 of the Annex; and

• “Secretary of State” includes any officer of his.

(4) Subject to paragraph (6) below no order shall be made under paragraph (2) above unless the relevant court is satisfied that the interests of justice in the judicial proceedings or circumstances in question outweigh any adverse domestic and international impact which disclosure may have on the investigation into the accident or incident to which the record relates or any future accident or incident investigation undertaken in the United Kingdom.

(5) A relevant record or part thereof shall not be treated as having been made available contrary to paragraph (1) above in any case where that record or part is included in the final report (or the appendices to the final report) of the accident or incident.

(6) The provisions of this regulation shall be without prejudice to any rule of law which authorises or requires the withholding of any relevant record or part thereof on the ground that the disclosure of it would be injurious to the public interest.