Section 37

Subject to this section, no evidence as to any information given by an informer in respect of any offence alleged to have been committed may be admitted in evidence in any civil or criminal proceedings, and no witness may be obliged or permitted to disclose the name or address of any informer or state any matter which might lead to the discovery of the identity of any informer.

If any book, document, paper or other information which is in evidence or liable to inspection in any civil or criminal proceedings, contains any entry in which any informer is named or described or which might lead to the discovery of the informer’s identity, the court is to cause all those entries to be concealed from view, erased or obliterated to the extent necessary to prevent the discovery of the identity of the informer but no further.

If, in any civil or criminal proceedings, the court, after full inquiry into the case, is of the opinion that the informer wilfully made in any information furnished by the informer a material statement which the informer knew or believed to be false or did not believe to be true or the court is of the opinion that justice cannot be fully done without the discovery of the identity of the informer, it is lawful for the court to require the production of the original information in any form that the court may accept, and to permit inquiry and require full disclosure concerning the informer.

For the purposes of this section, “informer” includes every person who is not called as a witness for the prosecution in a criminal case and who has made any complaint or report or furnished any information in respect of any offence alleged to have been committed by any person.