CRIMINAL RECORDS ACT 1991 - SECT 13
Unlawful disclosure of information concerning spent convictions
CRIMINAL RECORDS ACT 1991 - SECT 13
Unlawful disclosure of information concerning spent convictions
13 Unlawful disclosure of information concerning spent convictions
(1) A person who has access to records of convictions kept by or on behalf of
a public authority and who, without lawful authority, discloses to any other
person any information concerning a spent conviction is guilty of an offence.
Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units or imprisonment for 6 months, or both.
(2)
It is not an offence for the officer in charge of the Criminal Records Section
of the NSW Police Force to make information relating to a spent conviction
available to a law enforcement agency or to the holder of an office prescribed
by the regulations.
(3) It is not an offence for an archive or library (or an
authorised officer of an archive or library) to make available to a member of
the public, or to another archive or library, in accordance with the normal
procedures of the archive or library, material that is normally available for
public use and that contains information relating to a spent conviction.
(4B) It is not an offence for a
public authority or other government agency that has a record of a spent
conviction (or an authorised officer of the authority or agency) to make
information about the conviction available to the person who was convicted.
(5) In this section:
"law enforcement agency" means any of the following:
(a) the NSW Police Force,
(b) the Australian Federal Police,
(c) the police force of another State or a
Territory,
(d) the Australian Crime Commission,
(e) the Australian Bureau of
Criminal Intelligence,
(f) the National Exchange of Police Information,
(g)
the Independent Commission Against Corruption or a similar body established
under the law of another legislature in Australia,
(h) the New South Wales
Crime Commission or a similar body established under the law of another
legislature in Australia,
(h1) the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission,
(i)
the Attorney General for the Commonwealth or for a State or Territory,
(j)
persons employed in the Attorney General's Department or a similar Department
of the Commonwealth, another State or a Territory, or employed in a body
administered by such a Department, being persons whose primary function is the
institution or conduct of proceedings for offences,
(k) the Office of the
Director of Public Prosecutions or a similar body established under a law of
another legislature in Australia,
(l) the Director of Public Prosecutions, or
a person performing a similar function, appointed under a law of another
legislature in Australia,
(m) a Crown Prosecutor,
(n) an Australian legal
practitioner to the extent to which the Australian legal practitioner is
engaged by or on behalf of the Crown to prosecute an offence,
(o) a person or
body prescribed for the purpose of this definition by the regulations.