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.
Adopted by the
States 18th November 2009
Sanctioned by
Order of Her Majesty in Council 21st July 2010
Registered by the
Royal Court 6th
August 2010
THE STATES, subject to the sanction of Her Most Excellent Majesty in Council, have
adopted the following Law –
1 Interpretation
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[1] 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[2];
“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 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) Her
Majesty’s Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport; or
(b) Her
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[3];
(b) the
Social Security (Jersey) Law 1974[4];
(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
and commencement
(1) This
Law may be cited as the Digital Switchover (Disclosure of Information) (Jersey)
Law 2010.
(2) This
Law shall come into force on the seventh day after it is registered.
a.h. harris
Deputy Greffier of the States