The Disclosure of State Pension Credit Information (Warm Home Discount) Regulations 2011

Offences

6.—(1) A relevant person(1) must not disclose without lawful authority any information supplied to that person or another relevant person by virtue of these Regulations.

(2) A person—

(a) who is or has been employed by a relevant person,

(b) who is or has been engaged—

(i) in the provision of services to a relevant person in connection with the carrying out of a relevant function, or

(ii) to carry out any relevant function, or to carry out any function in connection with the carrying out of a relevant function, or

(c) who is or has been employed by, or who is or has been engaged in the provision of services to, or to carry out a function for, a person mentioned in sub-paragraph (b),

must not disclose without lawful authority any information supplied to a relevant person by virtue of regulations 4 or 5.

(3) Subject to paragraph (4), a person who contravenes paragraph (1) or (2) commits an offence.

(4) It is not an offence under this regulation—

(a) to disclose information in the form of a summary or collection of information so framed as not to enable information supplied by virtue of these Regulations relating to any particular person to be ascertained from it; or

(b) to disclose information which has previously been disclosed to the public with lawful authority.

(5) It is a defence for a person (“A”) charged with an offence under this regulation to prove that at the time of the alleged offence A had reasonable cause to believe—

(a) that A was making the disclosure in question with lawful authority, or

(b) that the information in question had previously been disclosed to the public with lawful authority.

(6) For the purposes of this regulation, a disclosure is to be regarded as made with lawful authority only if it is made—

(a) for the purpose of carrying out a relevant function, or for doing anything connected with the carrying out of a relevant function;

(b) for the purpose of managing the account of a domestic customer whose information has been supplied to an electricity supplier by virtue of regulation 5(1);

(c) for the prevention or detection of crime;

(d) in accordance with any enactment or court order;

(e) for the purpose of instituting, or otherwise for the purposes of, proceedings before a court;

(f) for a purpose connected with the exercise of functions of the Director of Public Prosecutions or, in Scotland, the Lord Advocate or procurator fiscal;

(g) with the consent of the person to whom the information relates or of any person authorised to act on that person’s behalf.

(7) A person guilty of an offence under this regulation is liable—

(a) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to a fine, or both;

(b) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or both.

(8) In the application of this regulation in England and Wales, in relation to an offence committed before the commencement of section 154(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003(2), the reference in paragraph (7)(b) to 12 months is to be read as a reference to 6 months.

(9) In this regulation “relevant function” means the carrying out of an activity for any of the purposes referred to in regulation 4(1) or (2) or 5(1) or (2).

(10) The reference in paragraph (6)(d) to an enactment includes a reference to an Act of the Scottish Parliament, an instrument under an Act of the Scottish Parliament and an enactment comprised in, or in an instrument made under, a Measure or Act of the National Assembly for Wales.

(1)

For the meaning of “relevant person”, see section 142(2) of the Pensions Act 2008.

(2)

2003 c.44.