9. (1) A person shall not disclose confidential information obtained by him or her while performing, or as a result of having performed, duties as a member of a committee unless he or she is authorised to do so by the Minister or as provided by law.

(2) A person who contravenes subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and be liable, on summary conviction, to a class E fine.

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

(a) information that is expressed by the Minister or the committee, as the case may be, to be confidential either as regards particular information or as regards information of a particular class or description,

(b) a report of the committee to the Minister, and

(c) information given by the committee to the Minister.

(4) The Third Schedule to the Freedom of Information Act 1997 is amended by the insertion in Part 1 at the end thereof:

(a) in column (2) of “ Forestry Act 2014”, and

(b) in column (3) of “section 9”.