[Home] [Databases] [World Law] [Multidatabase Search] [Help] [Feedback]
	Statutes of Northern Ireland
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Statutes of Northern Ireland >> URL: http://www.bailii.org/nie/legis/num_act/osa1920156.txt

[New search] [Help]

OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT 1920

OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT 1920 - LONG TITLE

An Act to amend the Official Secrets Act, 1911.{1}
[23rd December 1920]
Unauthorised use of uniforms; falsification of reports, forgery,
personation, and false documents.

OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT 1920 - SECT 1

1. If any person for the purpose of gaining admission, or of
assisting any other person to gain admission, to a prohibited place,
within the meaning of the Official Secrets Act, 1911 (hereinafter
referred to as "the principal Act"), or for any other purpose
prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State within the
meaning of the said Act

(a)uses or wears, without lawful authority, any naval, military,
air-force, police, or other official uniform, or any uniform so
nearly resembling the same as to be calculated to deceive, or
falsely represents himself to be a person who is or has been
entitled to use or wear any such uniform; or

(b)orally, or in writing in any declaration or application, or in
any document signed by him or on his behalf, knowingly makes or
connives at the making of any false statement or any omission; or

(c)forges, alters, or tampers with any passport or any naval,
military, air-force, police, or official pass, permit, certificate,
licence, or other document of a similar character (hereinafter in
this section referred to as an official document), or uses or has
in his possession any such forged, altered, or irregular official
document; or

(d)personates, or falsely represents himself to be a person holding,
or in the employment of a person holding, office under His Majesty,
or to be or not to be a person to whom an official document or
secret official code word or pass word has been duly issued or
communicated, or with intent to obtain an official document, secret
official code word or pass word, whether for himself or any other
person, knowingly makes any false statement; or

(e)uses, or has in his possession or under his control, without the
authority of the Government Department or the authority concerned,
any die, seal, or stamp of or belonging to, or used, made or
provided by any Government Department, or by any diplomatic, naval,
military, or air force authority appointed by or acting under the
authority of His Majesty, or any die, seal or stamp so nearly
resembling any such die, seal or stamp as to be calculated to
deceive, or counterfeits any such die, seal or stamp, or uses, or
has in his possession, or under his control, any such counterfeited
die, seal or stamp;

(2) If any person

(a)retains for any purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of
the State any official document, whether or not completed or issued
for use, when he has no right to retain it, or when it is
contrary to his duty to retain it, or fails to comply with any
directions issued by any Government Department or any person
authorised by such department with regard to the return or disposal
thereof; or

(b)allows any other person to have possession of any official
document issued for his use alone, or communicates any secret
official code word or pass word so issued, or, without lawful
authority or excuse, has in his possession any official document or
secret official code word or pass word issued for the use of some
person other than himself, or on obtaining possession of any
official document by finding or otherwise, neglects or fails to
restore it to the person or authority by whom or for whose use it
was issued, or to a police constable; or

(c)without lawful authority or excuse, manufactures or sells, or has
in his possession for sale any such die, seal or stamp as
aforesaid;

(3) In the case of any prosecution under this section involving the
proof of a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the
State, subsection (2) of section one of the principal Act shall
apply in like manner as it applies to prosecutions under that
section.

OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT 1920 - SECT 2
Communications with foreign agents to be evidence of commission of
certain offences.

2.(1) In any proceedings against a person for an offence under
section one of the principal Act, the fact that he has been in
communication with, or attempted to communicate with, a foreign
agent, whether within or without the United Kingdom, shall be
evidence that he has, for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or
interests of the State, obtained or attempted to obtain information
which is calculated to be or might be or is intended to be
directly or indirectly useful to an enemy.

(2) For the purpose of this section, but without prejudice to the
generality of the foregoing provision

(a)A person shall, unless he proves the contrary, be deemed to have
been in communication with a foreign agent if

(i)He has, either within or without the United Kingdom, visited the
address of a foreign agent or consorted or associated with a
foreign agent; or

(ii)Either, within or without the United Kingdom, the name or
address of, or any other information regarding a foreign agent has
been found in his possession, or has been supplied by him to any
other person, or has been obtained by him from any other person:

(b)The expression "foreign agent" includes any person who is or has
been or is reasonably suspected of being or having been employed by
a foreign power either directly or indirectly for the purpose of
committing an act, either within or without the United Kingdom,
prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State, or who has or
is reasonably suspected of having, either within or without the
United Kingdom, committed, or attempted to commit, such an act in
the interests of a foreign power:

(c)Any address, whether within or without the United Kingdom,
reasonably suspected of being an address used for the receipt of
communications intended for a foreign agent, or any address at which
a foreign agent resides, or to which he resorts for the purpose of
giving or receiving communications, or at which he carries on any
business, shall be deemed to be the address of a foreign agent,
and communications addressed to such an address to be communications
with a foreign agent.

OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT 1920 - SECT 3
Interfering with officers of the police or members of His Majesty's
forces.

3. No person in the vicinity of any prohibited place shall
obstruct, knowingly mislead or otherwise interfere with or impede,
the chief officer or a superintendent or other officer of police,
or any member of His Majesty's forces engaged on guard, sentry,
patrol, or other similar duty in relation to the prohibited place,
and, if any person acts in contravention of, or fails to comply
with, this provision, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour.

OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT 1920 - SECT 4
Power to require the production of telegrams.

4.(1) Where it appears to a Secretary of State that such a course
is expedient in the public interest, he may, by warrant under his
hand, require any person who owns or controls any telegraphic cable
or wire, or any apparatus for wireless telegraphy, used for the
sending or receipt of telegrams to or from any place out of the
United Kingdom, to produce to him, or to any person named in the
warrant, the originals and transcripts, either of all telegrams, or
of telegrams of any specified class or description, or of telegrams
sent from or addressed to any specified person or place, sent or
received to or from any place out of the United Kingdom by means
of any such cable, wire, or apparatus, and all other papers
relating to any such telegram as aforesaid.

(2) Any person who, on being required to produce any such original
or transcript or paper as aforesaid, refuses or neglects to do so
shall be guilty of an offence under this Act, and shall, for each
offence, be liable on conviction under the Summary Jurisdiction Acts
to imprisonment... for a term not exceeding three months, or to a
fine not exceeding fifty pounds, or to both such imprisonment and
fine.

(3) In this section the expression "telegram" shall have the same
meaning as in the Telegraph Act, 1869, and the expression "wireless
telegraphy" shall have the same meaning as in the Wireless
Telegraphy Act, 1904.

OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT 1920 - SECT 5
Registration and regulation of persons carrying on the business of
receiving postal packets.

5.(1) Every person who carries on, whether alone or in conjunction
with any other business, the business of receiving for reward
letters, telegrams, or other postal packets for delivery or
forwarding to the persons for whom they are intended, shall as soon
as may be send to the chief officer of police for the district,
for registration by him, notice of the fact together with the
address or addresses where the business is carried on, and the
chief officer of police shall keep a register of the names and
addresses of such persons, and shall, if required by any person who
sends such a notice, furnish him on payment of a fee of [5p] with
a certificate of registration, and every person so registered shall
from time to time furnish to the chief officer of police notice of
any change of address or new address at which the business is
carried on, and such other information as may be necessary for
maintaining the correctness of the particulars entered in the
register.

(2) Every person who carries on such a business as aforesaid shall
cause to be entered in a book kept for the purpose the following
particulars

(a)the name and address of every person for whom any postal packet
is received, or who has requested that postal packets received may
be delivered or forwarded to him;

(b)any instructions that may have been received as to the delivery
or forwarding of postal packets;

(c)in the case of every postal packet received, the place from
which the postal packet comes, and the date of posting (as shown
by the post-mark) and the date of receipt, and the name and
address of the sender if shown on the outside of the packet, and,
in the case of a registered packet, the date and office of
registration and the number of the registered packet;

(d)in the case of every postal packet delivered, the date of
delivery and the name and address of the person to whom it is
delivered;

(e)in the case of every postal packet forwarded, the name and
address to which and the date on which it is forwarded;

(3) The books so kept and all postal packets received by a person
carrying on any such business, and any instruction as to the
delivery or forwarding of postal packets received by any such
person, shall be kept at all reasonable times open to inspection by
any police constable.

(4) If any person contravenes or fails to comply with any of the
provisions of this section, or furnishes any false information or
makes any false entry, he shall be guilty of an offence under this
Act, and shall, for each offence, be liable on conviction under the
Summary Jurisdiction Acts to imprisonment... for a term not exceeding
one month, or to a fine not exceeding ten pounds, or to both such
imprisonment and fine.

(5) Nothing in this section shall apply to postal packets addressed
to any office where any newspaper or periodical is published, being
postal packets in reply to advertisements appearing in such newspaper
or periodical.

(6) Nothing in this section shall be construed as rendering legal
anything which would be in contravention of the exclusive privilege
of the Postmaster General under the Post Office Acts, 1908 to
1920,....[

OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT 1920 - SECT 6
Duty of giving information as to commission of offences.

6.(1) Where a district inspector is satisfied 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 the Minister of Home Affairs for
permission to exercise the powers conferred by this subsection and,
if such permission is granted, he may authorise a superintendent of
police, or any police officer not below the rank of head constable,
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 district inspector 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 the Minister of Home
Affairs, but if he does so shall forthwith report the circumstances
to the Minister of Home Affairs.

(3) References in this section to a district inspector shall be
construed as including references to any other officer of police
expressly authorised by a district inspector 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.]

OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT 1920 - SECT 7
Attempts, incitements, &c.

7. Any person who attempts to commit any offence under the
principal Act or this Act, or solicits or incites or endeavours to
persuade another person to commit an offence, or aids or abets and
does any act preparatory to the commission of an offence under the
principal Act or this Act, shall be guilty of a felony or a
misdemeanour or a summary offence according as the offence in
question is a felony, a misdemeanour or a summary offence, and on
conviction shall be liable to the same punishment, and to be
proceeded against in the same manner, as if he had committed the
offence.

OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT 1920 - SECT 8
Provisions as to trial and punishment of offences.

8.(1) Any person who is guilty of a felony under the principal Act
or this Act shall be liable to penal servitude for a term of not
less than three years and not exceeding fourteen years.

(2) Any person who is guilty of a misdemeanour under the principal
Act or this Act shall be liable on conviction on indictment to
imprisonment, ..., for a term not exceeding two years, or, on
conviction under the Summary Jurisdiction Acts, to imprisonment, ...,
for a term not exceeding three months or to a fine not exceeding
fifty pounds, or both such imprisonment and fine:

Provided that no misdemeanour under the principal Act or this Act
shall be dealt with summarily except with the consent of the
Attorney General.

(3) For the purposes of the trial of a person for an offence
under the principal Act or this Act, the offence shall be deemed
to have been committed either at the place in which the same
actually was committed, or at any place in the United Kingdom in
which the offender may be found.

(4) In addition and without prejudice to any powers which a court
may possess to order the exclusion of the public from any
proceedings if, in the course of proceedings before a court against
any person for an offence under the principal Act or this Act or
the proceedings on appeal, or in the course of the trial of a
person for felony or misdemeanour under the principal Act or this
Act, application is made by the prosecution, on the ground that the
publication of any evidence to be given or of any statement to be
made in the course of the proceedings would be prejudicial to the
national safety, that all or any portion of the public shall be
excluded during any part of the hearing, the court may make an
order to that effect, but the passing of sentence shall in any
case take place in public.

(5) Where the person guilty of an offence under the principal Act
or this Act is a company or corporation, every director and officer
of the company or corporation shall be guilty of the like offence
unless he proves that the act or omission constituting the offence
took place without his knowledge or consent.

Ss.9, 10 amend 1911 c.28

OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT 1920 - SECT 11
Short title and construction.

11.(1) This Act may be cited as the Official Secrets Act, 1920,
and shall be construed as one with the principal Act, and the
principal Act and this Act may be cited together as the Official
Secrets Acts, 1911 and 1920.

Subs.(2) rep. by SLR 1927

(3) For the purposes of this Act, the expression "chief officer of
police,"

(d)with respect to Ireland, means the district inspector of the
Royal Irish Constabulary.

First Schedule amends ss.1, 2, 3, 7, 12 of 1911 c.28. Second
Schedule rep. by SLR 1927