18.— (1) A person shall not disclose confidential information obtained by him or her while performing functions as a director or a member of the staff of, or an adviser or consultant to, the subsidiary, or a member of the staff of such adviser or consultant unless he or she is duly authorised by the subsidiary to so do.

(2) Subsection (1) shall not operate to prohibit the disclosure of confidential information by a person referred to in that subsection to the Social Finance Foundation.

(3) In this section “confidential information” includes—

(a) information that is expressed by the subsidiary to be confidential either as regards particular information or as regards information of a particular class or description, and

(b) proposals of a commercial nature or tenders submitted to the subsidiary by contractors, consultants or any other person.