New South Wales Consolidated Acts

YOUNG OFFENDERS ACT 1997 - SECT 66

66 Disclosure of records

(1) A person who acquires information or prepares a record in the exercise of functions under this Act must not, directly or indirectly, divulge the information to another person except in the exercise of functions under this Act.

Maximum penalty: 500 penalty units (in the case of a corporation) or 50 penalty units or imprisonment for 12 months, or both, in any other case.

(2) Despite subsection (1), information may be divulged in the following circumstances:

(a) records of, or relating to, cautions and conferences may be divulged to the child, a person responsible for the child or a legal representative of the child,

(b) records of, or relating to, cautions and conferences under this Act may be divulged to an investigating official, specialist youth officer, conference convenor, conference administrator, the Director of Public Prosecutions or a court for the purpose of determining whether or not to take action under this Act,

(c) records of, or relating to, cautions and conferences under this Act may be divulged to the Children’s Court for the purpose of making a decision concerning sentencing,

(d) records of, or relating to, warnings under this Act may be divulged to a youth liaison officer for the purpose of taking action under section 16A,

(e) records of, or relating to, cautions and conferences under this Act may (subject to any regulations made for the purposes of subsection (3)) be divulged to an authorised officer of the Department of Juvenile Justice.

(3) The regulations may make for provision for or with respect to the divulging of records in the circumstance referred to in subsection (2) (e).

(4) In this section:
"authorised officer of the Department of Juvenile Justice" means any of the following officers of the Department:

(a) the Director-General,

(b) a Deputy Director-General,

(c) a juvenile justice officer,

(d) such other member of staff (or member of staff belonging to a class of members of staff) of the Department as may be prescribed by the regulations.