Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Act 2009

10

Restriction of disclosure of existence of authorisations and other documents.

10.— (1) The relevant Minister shall ensure that information and documents to which this Act applies are stored securely and that only persons who he or she authorises for that purpose have access to them.

(2) In the interests of the protection of the privacy and other rights of persons, the security of the State, and the aims of preventing the commission of, and detecting, arrestable offences, the relevant Minister may make regulations prescribing—

(a) the persons or categories of persons who are to have access for the purposes of this section to information with respect to the existence of authorisations, approvals granted under sections 7 and 8 and documents referred to in section 9,

(b) the procedures and arrangements for the secure storage, and the maintenance of the security, of that information and those documents, and

(c) the number of copies that may be made of those documents and the destruction of those copies as soon as possible after they are no longer required under section 9.

(3) Notwithstanding section 13, the Minister may make regulations respecting the disclosure or non-disclosure, to the person who was its subject or other persons whose interests are materially affected by it, of the existence of an authorisation or an approval under section 7 or 8, provided that any disclosure authorised by such regulations is—

(a) consistent with the purposes for which the authorisation or approval concerned was issued or granted,

(b) consistent with the security of the State, the protection of persons’ privacy and other rights and the aims of preventing and detecting the commission of arrestable offences, and

(c) unlikely to hinder the investigation in the future of such offences.

(4) Any regulation made under subsection (3) may—

(a) require consultation by the Minister, in any particular case of disclosure, with such classes of persons as may be prescribed,

(b) prescribe categories of persons (other than the subjects of the authorisations or approvals) whose interests are materially affected by authorisations or approvals, to whom disclosure is to be made, and

(c) permit the imposition of terms and conditions limiting the extent or detail of disclosure as necessary, having regard to the matters referred to in subsection (3).