Documents the disclosure of which would be contempt of National assembly or contempt of court 32. A document is an exempt document if public disclosure of the document would, apart from this Act and any immunity of the Crown(a) be in contempt of court; (b) be contrary to an order made or direction given by a commission or by a tribunal or other person or body having power to take evidence on oath; or (c) infringe the privileges of the National Assembly. Crown privilege in juducial proceedings not afected 33. Nothing in this Act shall affect any rule of law which authorises the withholding of any document by the Crown in or in relation to a judicial proceeding on the ground that the publication or disclosure of the document would be injurious to the public interest. Duty of authorities to act in good faith 34. In considering whether or not to claim exemption under this Part, the principal officer of a Ministry or prescribed authority shall act in good faith and use his best endeavours to achieve the object of this Act to afford to members of the public maximum access to official documents consistent with public interest. PART V REVIEW OF DECISIONS Aplications to Ombudsman 35.-(1) Application may be made to the Ombudsman for review of a decision refusing to grant access to a document in accordance with a request or deferring the provision of access to a document. (2) Subject to subsection (3), in proceedings under this Part, the Ombudsman has power, in addition to any other power, to review any decision that has been made by a Ministry or prescribed authority in respect of the request and to decide any matter in relation to the request that, under this Act, could have been or could be decided by a Ministry or prescribed authority, and any decision oI the Ombudsman under this section has the same efect as a decision of the Ministry or prescribed authority. (3) Where, in proceedings under this section, it is established that a document is an exempt document, the Ombudsman does not have power to decide that access to the document, so far as it contains exempt matter, is to be granted. (4) Where, under a provision of Part IV, it is provided that a certificate of a specified kind estahlishes conclusively, for the purposes of this Act, that a document is an exempt document and such a certificate has been given in respect of a document, the powers of the Ombudsman do not extend to reviewing the decision to give the certificate or the existence of proper grounds for the giving of the certificate.

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents