Clause 131

No return of particulars or information and no part of a return furnished, and no answer to any question put, for the purposes of this Act shall, without the previous consent in writing of the person having the control, management or superintendence of the profession, business, trade or work in relation to which the return or answer was furnished or given, be published nor, except for the purposes of a prosecution under this Act, shall any person not engaged in connection with the collection or preparation of statistics under this Act be permitted to see any such individual return or any such part of an individual return.

Every person engaged in connection with the collection, preparation or publication of statistics under this Act shall be required to make a declaration in the prescribed form that he will not disclose or, except for the purposes of this Act, make use of the contents of any such part of an individual return, or any such answer as aforesaid; and any person who knowingly acts in contravention of any declaration which he has so made shall be guilty of an offence under this Act and shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or to a fine not exceeding four thousand dollars or to both such imprisonment and fine.

In any report, summary of statistics, or other publication prepared under this Act with reference to any trade or industry, the particulars comprised in any return shall not be disclosed in any manner whatever, or arranged in any way which would enable any person to identify any particulars so published as being particulars relating to any individual person or business.

If any person, having possession of any information which to his knowledge has been disclosed in contravention of the provisions of this section, publishes or communicates to any other person any such information, he shall be guilty of an offence under this Act and shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to a fine not exceeding four thousand dollars or to both such imprisonment and fine.