8 Penalties
(1) If any person—
(a) refuses or neglects to comply with or acts in contravention of any of the
provisions of this Act or any Order in Council or regulations made under this
Act; or
(b) being a person required under this Act to make a statutory declaration with
respect to the performance of his duties, makes a false declaration; or
(c) being a person required by an Order in Council or regulations made under this
Act to make, sign, or deliver any document, makes, signs, or delivers, or causes
to be made, signed, or delivered a false document; or
(d) being a person required in pursuance of any such Order in Council or
regulations to answer any question, refuses to answer or gives a false answer to
that question;
he shall for each offence be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding [level 3
on the standard scale].
[(1A) But no person shall be liable to a penalty under subsection (1) for refusing or
neglecting to state any particulars in respect of religion.]
[(2) If the Registrar-General for England and Wales or the Registrar-General for
Scotland (“the Registrars”) or any person who is—
(a) under the control of either of the Registrars; or
(b) a supplier of any services to either of them, discloses any personal census
information to another person, without lawful authority, he shall be guilty of an
offence.
(3) If any person discloses to another person any personal census information which he
knows has been disclosed in contravention of this Act, he shall be guilty of an
offence.
(4) It shall be a defence for a person charged with an offence under subsection (2) or (3)
to prove—
(a) that at the time of the alleged offence he believed—
(i) that he was acting with lawful authority; or
(ii) that the information in question was not personal census information; and
(b) that he had no reasonable cause to believe otherwise.
(5) A person guilty of an offence under subsection (2) or (3) shall be liable—
(a) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months
or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to both;
(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two
years or to a fine or to both.
(6) For the purposes of this section—
(a) references to a Registrar include, where he is also the holder of a designated
office, references to him in his capacity as the holder of that office;
(b) a person is to be treated as under the control of one of the Registrars if he is, or
has been—
(i) employed by that Registrar (whether or not on a full-time basis); or
(ii) otherwise employed, or acting, (whether or not on a full-time basis) as part
of that Registrar’s staff for purposes of this Act;
(c) a person is to be treated as a supplier of services to a Registrar if he—.
(i) supplies, or has supplied, any services to that Registrar in connection with the
discharge by that Registrar of any of his functions; or
(ii) is, or has been, employed by such a supplier.
(7) In this section—
“census information” means any information which is—
(i) acquired by any person mentioned in subsection (2) above in the course of
any work done by him in connection with the discharge of functions under
section 2 or 4 of this Act;
(ii) acquired by any such person in the course of working, for purposes of
section 5 of this Act, with any information acquired as mentioned in subparagraph
(i) above; or
(iii) derived from any information so acquired;
“designated office”, in relation to a Registrar, means any office for the time being
designated by him in writing for the purposes of this section; and
“personal census information” means any census information which relates to an
identifiable person or household.]
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