New South Wales Consolidated Acts

INDEPENDENT COMMISSION AGAINST CORRUPTION ACT 1988 - SECT 111

111 Secrecy

(1) This section applies to:

(a) a person who is or was an officer of the Commission, and

(b) a person who is or was an Australian legal practitioner appointed to assist the Commission or who is or was a person who assists, or performs services for or on behalf of, such an Australian legal practitioner in the exercise of the Australian legal practitioner’s functions as counsel to the Commission, and

(d) a person or body referred to in section 14 (3), 16 (4) or 53 (6), and

(e) a person who is or was an officer of the Inspector.

(2) A person to whom this section applies shall not, directly or indirectly, except for the purposes of this Act or otherwise in connection with the exercise of the person’s functions under this Act:

(a) make a record of any information, or

(b) divulge or communicate to any person any information,

being information acquired by the person by reason of, or in the course of, the exercise of the person’s functions under this Act.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units or imprisonment for 12 months, or both.

(3) A person to whom this section applies shall not be required:

(a) to produce in any court any document or other thing that has come into the person’s possession, custody or control by reason of, or in the course of, the exercise of the person’s functions under this Act, or

(b) to divulge or communicate to any court any matter or thing that has come to the person’s notice in the exercise of the person’s functions under this Act,

except for the purposes of a prosecution or disciplinary proceedings instituted as a result of an investigation conducted by the Commission in the exercise of its functions.

(4) Despite this section, a person to whom this section applies may divulge any such information:

(a) for the purposes of and in accordance with this Act, or

(b) for the purposes of a prosecution or disciplinary proceedings instituted as a result of an investigation conducted by the Commission in the exercise of its functions, or

(c) in accordance with a direction of the Commissioner or Inspector, if the Commissioner or Inspector certifies that it is necessary to do so in the public interest, or

(d) to any prescribed authority or person.

(5) An authority or person to whom information is divulged under subsection (4), and any person or employee under the control of that authority or person, shall, in respect of that information, be subject to the same rights, privileges, obligations and liabilities under subsections (2) and (3) as if he or she were a person to whom this section applies and had acquired the information in the exercise of functions under this Act.

(6) In this section:
"court" includes any tribunal, authority or person having power to require the production of documents or the answering of questions.
"produce" includes permit access to.