The chief officer of a UK law-enforcement body must, as soon as practicable after receiving it, comply with a request made under section 49(2) of the Disclosure Act (which allows information to be requested for the purpose of determining whether a person is suitable to have access to disclosure information).

(2)

A chief officer must not provide information in accordance with this article if the chief officer thinks that disclosing the information would be contrary to the interests of the prevention or detection of crime.

Duty to make central records available10.

(1)

A person who holds central records must make those records available to the Scottish Ministers for the purposes of enabling or assisting them to perform their functions under Part 1 of the Disclosure Act.

(2)

Paragraph (1) does not apply to records that must be made available to the Scottish Ministers by virtue of section 65(1) of the Disclosure Act.

(3)

For the purposes of this article, “central records” has the same meaning as it has for the purpose of section 65(1) of the Disclosure Act.

Duty to provide personal data for checking identity11.

(1)

A personal data holder must, on request, provide the Scottish Ministers with the information described in paragraph (2) to enable the Scottish Ministers to exercise their function under section 58 of the Disclosure Act (power to use personal data to check identity).

(2)

The information referred to in paragraph (1) is information that—

(a)

the personal data holder thinks it appropriate to provide in response to the request, and

(b)

is held by a personal data holder.

(3)

In this article, “personal data holder” means a person mentioned in section 58(2)(b) or (c) of the Disclosure Act.

Duty to make fingerprint records available12.

(1)

Any person who holds records of fingerprints for the use of police forces generally must make those records available to the Scottish Ministers for the purposes of section 59 of the Disclosure Act (power to use fingerprints to check identity).

(2)

Paragraph (1) does not apply to records that must be made available to the Scottish Ministers by virtue of section 59(5) of the Disclosure Act.

(3)

For the purposes of paragraph (1), “police forces” has the same meaning as it has for the purposes of section 59(5) of the Disclosure Act.

Duty to provide other information requested by the Scottish Ministers13.

(1)

The Scottish Ministers may by notice require any person mentioned in paragraph (2) to provide them with information which they—

(a)

believe the person holds, and

(b)

consider is necessary to carry out their functions under Part 1 of the Disclosure Act.

(2)

The persons referred to in paragraph (1) are—

(a)

the chief officer of a UK law-enforcement body;

(b)

a local authority in England and Wales within the meaning of section 1(4) of the Local Authorities (Goods and Services) Act 19706;

(c)

the Secretary of State;

(d)

the Disclosure and Barring Service;

(e)

the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland;

(f)

any other person the Scottish Ministers consider appropriate whom they could not require to provide the information under section 65(2) of the Disclosure Act.

(3)

The chief officer of a UK law-enforcement body must not provide information by virtue of a notice under paragraph (1) if the chief officer thinks that disclosing the information would be contrary to the interests of the prevention or detection of crime.