Article 20 Further provisionsI1
Scotland
A disclosure order does not confer the right to require a person to answer any question, provide any information or produce any document, which they would be entitled to refuse to answer, provide or produce on grounds of legal privilege.
A disclosure order has effect in spite of any restriction on the disclosure of information (however imposed).
The Lord Advocate may take copies of any documents produced in compliance with the requirement to produce them which is imposed under a disclosure order.
Documents so produced may be retained for so long as it is necessary to retain them (as opposed to a copy of them) in connection with the external investigation.
But if the Lord Advocate has reasonable grounds for believing that—
the documents may need to be produced for the purposes of any legal proceedings; and
they might otherwise be unavailable for those purposes,
the documents may be retained until the proceedings are concluded.
Material produced in compliance with a disclosure order must be sent to the Secretary of State for forwarding to the overseas authority that made the request for assistance.