Section 251B — Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992: Prohibition on disclosure of information

Prohibition on disclosure of information 251B 1 Information held by ACAS shall not be disclosed if the information—

a relates to a worker, an employer of a worker or a trade union (a “relevant person”),

and b is held by ACAS in connection with the provision of a service by ACAS or its officers. This is subject to subsection (2).

2 Subsection (1) does not prohibit the disclosure of information if—

a the disclosure is made for the purpose of enabling or assisting ACAS to carry out any of its functions under this Act, b the disclosure is made for the purpose of enabling or assisting an officer of ACAS to carry out the functions of a conciliation officer under any enactment, c the disclosure is made for the purpose of enabling or assisting—

i a person appointed by ACAS under section 210(2), or ii an arbitrator or arbiter appointed by ACAS under any enactment, to carry out functions specified in the appointment, ca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . d the disclosure is made for the purposes of a criminal investigation or criminal proceedings (whether or not within the United Kingdom),

e the disclosure is made in order to comply with a court order, f the disclosure is made in a manner that ensures that no relevant person to whom the information relates can be identified, or g the disclosure is made with the consent of each relevant person to whom the information relates.

3 Subsection (2) does not authorise the making of a disclosure which contravenes the data protection legislation .

4 A person who discloses information in contravention of this section commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

5 Proceedings in England and Wales for an offence under this section may be instituted only with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

6 For the purposes of this section information held by—

a a person appointed by ACAS under section 210(2) in connection with functions specified in the appointment, or b an arbitrator or arbiter appointed by ACAS under any enactment in connection with functions specified in the appointment, is information that is held by ACAS in connection with the provision of a service by ACAS.

7 In this section, “ the data protection legislation ” has the same meaning as in the Data Protection Act 2018 (see section 3 of that Act).