Section 42 applies to information that would be subject to legal professional
privilege if litigation were in progress. Legal professional privilege
covers confidential communications between lawyers and clients and certain
other information that is created for the purposes of litigation. Section
42 ensures that the confidential relationship between lawyer and client
is protected.
Key points:
Whether information is subject to legal professional privilege is
a question of law and it will very often be necessary
to consult legal advisers in connection with this;
Advice from the Law Officers is also governed by section 35 and the
Law Officers should be consulted where their advice is the subject of
a request;
Section 42 is subject to a public interest balance. But, given the
very substantial public interest in maintaining the confidentiality
of legally professionally privileged material, it is likely to only
be in exceptional circumstances that this will be outweighed by the
public interest in disclosure.
