Putting a lid on govt secrets

The Official Secrets Act 1972 gives the Government a right of privacy in relation to its “official secrets”. The gist of the law is that no “official secret” can be received, retained, released or used without prior authorisation from the Government. It is an offence to fail to take reasonable care of an official secret. A person receiving unauthorised information, no matter how innocently, has a duty to report the natter to the police, to divulge his source of information, and to surrender the material once he reasonably believes that the information is an official secret.