# UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021, Section 40: Confidentiality of proceedings


(1) Environmental Standards Scotland must not disclose—
(a) information obtained under section 23(1) or 24(1), or
(b) correspondence between Environmental Standards Scotland and a public authority that—
(i) relates to a particular information notice or compliance notice, or to the preparation of a particular improvement report,
(ii) is, or contains, such a notice or an unpublished draft of such a report.
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to—
(a) a disclosure (other than a disclosure of an information notice, a compliance notice or an unpublished draft of an improvement report) made with the consent of the public authority who provided the information or correspondence,
(b) a disclosure made for purposes connected with the exercise of Environmental Standards Scotland's functions,
(c) a disclosure made to the Office for Environmental Protection, or any other environmental governance body, for purposes connected with the exercise of an environmental governance function,
(d) a disclosure of information, or correspondence, that relates only to a matter in relation to which Environmental Standards Scotland does not intend to take any further action under this Chapter,
(e) a disclosure made for the purposes of civil proceedings,
(f) a disclosure made for the purposes of the investigation or prosecution of any offence or suspected offence or for the purposes of the prevention or detection of crime,
(g) a disclosure made in pursuance of an order of a court or tribunal,
(h) a disclosure made in accordance with any other enactment requiring or permitting the disclosure.

---
Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2021/4/section/40 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/uk-withdrawal-from-the-european-union-continuity-scotland-act-2021/section-40
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.