Digital Switchover
(Disclosure of Information) (Jersey) Law 2010
A LAW to enable the disclosure of
information for the purposes of a digital switchover help scheme.
Commencement [see endnotes]
1 Interpretation[1]
In this Law, unless the context otherwise
requires –
“BBC” means the British Broadcasting Corporation;
“BBC Charter and Agreement” means the following documents,
or any one or more of them, so far as they are for the time being in force –
(a) a
Royal Charter for the continuance of the BBC;
(b) supplemental
Charters obtained by the BBC under such a Royal Charter;
(c) an
agreement between the BBC and the Secretary of State entered into (whether
before or after the passing of this Law) for purposes that include the
regulation of activities carried on by the BBC;
“broadcasting” means broadcasting by wireless telegraphy
(as defined by section 116 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 of the
United Kingdom, as that Act has effect in Jersey) otherwise than by satellite;
“care home” means –
(a) a
home to which the Nursing and Residential Homes (Jersey) Law 1994 applies,
within the meaning of that Law; or
(b) any hospital,
establishment, or premises, that, but for the operation of Article 3(2)(a)
or (c) of the Nursing and Residential Homes (Jersey) Law 1994, would be a
home to which that Law applies, within the meaning of that Law,
and includes (for the avoidance of doubt) a hospital to the extent
that it accommodates a long-stay patient within the meaning of the Hospital
Charges (Long-Stay Patients) (Jersey) Law 1999;
“digital switchover” means the replacement of the
broadcast of television services in Jersey in analogue form with their
broadcast in digital form;
“Minister” means the Minister
for Sustainable Economic Development;
“prescribed” means prescribed by Order made by the
Minister;
“relevant person” means –
(a) the
BBC;
(b) any
company in respect of which any one or more of the following –
(i) the BBC,
(ii) the
Secretary of State, or
(iii) a
nominee of the BBC or the Secretary of State,
hold at least 51% of the issued
ordinary share capital or possess at least 51% of the voting rights; or
(c) any
person who is engaged by the BBC, the Secretary of State or any company falling
within paragraph (b) –
(i) to provide any
service connected with switchover help functions,
(ii) to
carry out a switchover help function, or
(iii) to
carry out any function connected with switchover help functions;
“Secretary
of State” means –
(a) His
Majesty’s Secretary of State for Culture, Media
and Sport; or
(b) His
Majesty’s Secretary of State for any government department (or any other
Minister of the Crown) to whom the functions of the Secretary of State for
Culture, Media and Sport are transferred;
“switchover
help function” means –
(a) the
identification of persons who may be eligible for help under a switchover help
scheme;
(b) making
contact with those persons with a view to the provision of such help; and
(c) the
establishment of any person’s entitlement to such help;
“switchover help scheme” means any scheme that applies
to or in relation to Jersey for the provision of help to individuals in
connection with digital switchover, being a scheme that is agreed between the
BBC and the Secretary of State in pursuance of the BBC Charter and Agreement,
as the scheme has effect from time to time.
2 Disclosure
of information
(1) The Minister for Social
Security may, at the request of a relevant person, supply a relevant person
with social security information for use (by the person to whom it is supplied
or by another relevant person) in connection with switchover help functions.
(2) The Minister for Health
and Social Services may, at the request of a relevant person, supply a relevant
person with care home residency information for use (by the person to whom it
is supplied or by another relevant person) in connection with switchover help
functions.
(3) A person registered
under the Nursing and Residential Homes (Jersey) Law 1994 to carry on a
care home, being a home to which that Law applies, may, at the request of a
relevant person, supply a relevant person with care home residency information
in relation to that care home for use (by the person to whom it is supplied or
by another relevant person) in connection with switchover help functions.
(4) The Jersey Blind
Society may, at the request of a relevant person, supply a relevant person with
visual impairment information for use (by the person to whom it is supplied or
by another relevant person) in connection with switchover help functions.
(5) Any person prescribed
for the purposes of this paragraph may, at the request of a relevant person,
supply a relevant person with information of a prescribed description for use
(by the person to whom it is supplied or by another relevant person) in
connection with switchover help functions.
(6) In this
Article –
“care home residency information” means information of a
prescribed description –
(a) held
by or on behalf of the Minister for Health and Social Services and obtained as
a result of, or for the purpose of, the exercise of his or her functions in
relation to care homes; or
(b) held
by or on behalf of a person registered under the Nursing and Residential Homes
(Jersey) Law 1994 to carry on a care home, being a home to which that Law
applies, and relating to the patients in the care home;
“social security information” means information of a prescribed
description held by or on behalf of the Minister for Social Security and obtained
as a result of, or for the purpose of, the exercise of that Minister’s functions
including, without limitation, his or her functions under any of the
following –
(a) the Income
Support (Jersey) Law 2007;
(b) the Social
Security (Jersey) Law 1974;
(c) any
Regulation, Order, or other enactment, made under an enactment referred to in
sub-paragraph (a) or (b);
“visual impairment information” means information of a prescribed
description about persons who are registered as blind or partially sighted in a
register maintained by or on behalf of the Jersey Blind Society.
3 Offences
(1) A relevant person shall
not disclose without lawful authority any information supplied to him or her or
another relevant person under Article 2.
(2) A person
who –
(a) is or
has been employed by a relevant person;
(b) is or
has been engaged –
(i) in the provision
of services to a relevant person in connection with the carrying out of a
switchover help function, or
(ii) to
carry out any switchover help function, or to carry out any function in
connection with the carrying out of a switchover help function; or
(c) is or
has been employed by, or is or has been engaged in the provision of services
to, or to carry out a function for, a person engaged as mentioned in paragraph (b),
shall not disclose without lawful authority information supplied to
a relevant person under Article 2.
(3) A person who
contravenes paragraph (1) or (2) shall be guilty of an offence and liable to
imprisonment for a term of 2 years and to a fine.
(4) It shall not be an
offence under this Article –
(a) to
disclose information in the form of a summary, or collection of information, so
framed as not to enable information supplied under Article 2 relating to
any particular person to be ascertained from it; or
(b) to
disclose information that has previously been disclosed to the public with
lawful authority.
(5) It is a defence for a
person charged with an offence under this Article to prove that –
(a) at
the time of the alleged offence he or she believed that –
(i) he or she was
making the disclosure in question with lawful authority, or
(ii) the
information in question had previously been disclosed to the public with lawful
authority; and
(b) he or
she had no reasonable cause to believe otherwise.
(6) For the purposes of
this Article, a disclosure is to be regarded as made with lawful authority only
if it is made –
(a) for
the purpose of carrying out a switchover help function, or for doing anything
connected with the carrying out of a switchover help function;
(b) in
accordance with any enactment or court order;
(c) for
the purpose of instituting, or otherwise for the purposes of, proceedings
before a court; or
(d) with
the consent of the person to whom the information relates or of any person
authorized to act on that person’s behalf.
4 Orders
(1) The Minister may by
Order make provision for the purpose of carrying this Law into effect and, in
particular, but without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, for
prescribing any matter that may be prescribed under this Law by Order.
(2) Orders under this Law may
contain such consequential, incidental, supplemental and transitional provisions
as may appear to the Minister to be necessary or expedient.
5 Citation
This Law may be cited as the Digital Switchover (Disclosure of
Information) (Jersey) Law 2010.