# Local Government Finance Act 1992, Paragraph 15D

Extent: E+W+S

(1) A person to whom sub-paragraph (2) applies is guilty of an offence if the person discloses without lawful authority any information—
(a) which comes to the person by virtue of paragraph 15A, 15B or 15C, and
(b) which relates to a particular person.
(2) This sub-paragraph applies to—
(a) a qualifying person for the purpose of paragraph 15A, 15B or 15C;
(b) a person who is or has been a director, member of the committee of management, manager, secretary or other similar officer of a person within paragraph (a);
(c) a person who is or has been an employee of such a person.
(3) A person guilty of an offence under this paragraph is liable—
(a) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or a fine, or both;
(b) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding the general limit in a magistrates’ court or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or both.
(4) It is not an offence under this paragraph—
(a) to disclose information in the form of a summary or collection of information so framed as not to enable information relating to any particular person to be identified from it;
(b) to disclose information which has previously been disclosed to the public with lawful authority.
(5) It is a defence for a person (“D”) charged with an offence under this paragraph to prove that at the time of the alleged offence—
(a) D believed that D was making the disclosure in question with lawful authority and had no reasonable cause to believe otherwise, or
(b) D believed that the information in question had previously been disclosed to the public with lawful authority and had no reasonable cause to believe otherwise.
(6) For the purposes of this paragraph, “lawful authority” has the meaning given by section 123 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992.
(7) In relation to an offence under this paragraph committed in England and Wales before 2 May 2022 the reference in sub-paragraph (3)(b) to the general limit in a magistrates’ court is to be taken as a reference to 6 months.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1992/14/schedule/2/paragraph/15D (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/local-government-finance-act-1992/schedule-2/paragraph-15D
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.