Commissions of Investigation Act 2004

Amendment of draft reports to preserve confidentiality of sensitive commercial information.

36

36.—(1) A person who receives a draft of a report or part of a draft report from a commission under section 34 may, within a period specified by the commission, request the commission to omit from the report any information provided by the person to the commission—

(a) that the person considers to be commercially sensitive, and

(b) the disclosure of which is not, in the person's opinion, necessary for the purposes of the investigation.

(2) After considering the request, the commission shall review the draft report and may, if satisfied that the information is commercially sensitive and that its disclosure is not necessary for the purposes of the investigation, omit the information from the report.

(3) For the purposes of this section, information is commercially sensitive if its disclosure could reasonably be expected to—

(a) materially prejudice the commercial or industrial interests of the person who provided that information to the commission or of a group or class of persons to which that person belongs, or

(b) prejudice the competitive position of a person in the conduct of the person's business, profession or occupation.