Official Secrets Act 1939
01 January 1991
Official Secrets Act 1939
actdoc September=1991
An Act to amend section six of the Official Secrets Act) 1920.
[23rd November 1939]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and
with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and
Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled,
and by the authority of the same, as follows:-
1. For section six of the Official Secrets Act, 1920,
there shall be substituted the following section :-
" 6.-(1) Where a chief officer of police is satis-
fied that there is reasonable ground for suspecting
that an offence under section one of the principal
Act has been committed and for believing that any
person is able to furnish information as to the
offence or suspected offence, he may apply to a
Secretary of State for permission to exercise the
powers conferred by this subsection and, if such
permission is granted, be may authorise a super-
intendent of police, or any police officer not below
the rank of inspector, to require the person
believed to be able to furnish information to give
any information in his power relating to the offence
or suspected offence, and, if so required and on
tender of his reasonable expenses, to attend at such
reasonable time and place as may be specified by the
superintendent or other officer; and if a person
required in pursuance of such an authorisation to
give information, or to attend as aforesaid, fails
to comply with any such requirement or knowingly
gives false information, he shall be guilty of a
misdemeanour.
(2) Where a chief officer of police has reasonable
grounds to believe that the case is one of great
emergency and that in the interest of the State
immediate action is necessary, he may exercise the
powers conferred by the last foregoing subsection
without applying for or being granted the permission
of a Secretary of State, but if he does so shall
forthwith report the circumstances to the Secretary
of State.
(3) References in this section to a chief officer Of
police shall be construed as including references to
any other officer of police expressly authorised by
a chief officer of police to act on his behalf for
the purposes of this section when by reason of
illness, absence, or other cause he is unable to do
so."
2.- (1) This Act may be cited as the Official Secrets
Act, 1939, and this Act and the Official Secrets
Acts, 1911 and 1920, shall be construed as one, and
may be cited together as the Official Secrets Acts,
1911 to 1939.
(2) It is hereby declared that this Act extends to
Northern Ireland; and, in the application thereof to
Northern Ireland, this Act shall have effect subject
to the following modifications, that is to say, for
references to a chief officer of police there shall
be substituted references to a district inspector,
for references to a Secretary of State there shall
be substituted references to the Minister of Home
Affairs, and for the reference to the rank of
inspector there shall be substituted a reference to
the rank of head constable.