Section 2: Abuse of information obtained in official capacity.

Company Securities (Insider Dealing) Act 1985 (repealed 1.3.1994) · 1985 c. 8View on legislation.gov.uk

This section applies to any information which—

is held by a public servant or former public servant by virtue of his position or former position as a public servant, or is knowingly obtained by an individual (directly or indirectly) from a public servant or former public servant who he knows or has reasonable cause to believe held the information by virtue of any such position,
it would be reasonable to expect an individual in the position of the public servant or former position of the former public servant not to disclose except for the proper performance of the functions attaching to that position, and
the individual holding it knows is unpublished price sensitive information in relation to securities of a particular company ("relevant securities").

This section applies to a public servant or former public servant holding information to which this section applies and to any individual who knowingly obtained any such information (directly or indirectly) from a public servant or former public servant who that individual knows or has reasonable cause to believe held the information by virtue of his position or former position as a public servant.

Subject to section 3, an individual to whom this section applies—

shall not deal on a recognised stock exchange in any relevant securities,
shall not counsel or procure any other person to deal in any such securities, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that that other person would deal in them on a recognised stock exchange, and
shall not communicate to any other person the information held or (as the case may be) obtained by him as mentioned in subsection (2) if he knows or has reasonable cause to believe that that or some other person will make use of the information for the purpose of dealing, or of counselling or procuring any other person to deal, on a recognised stock exchange in any such securities.

"Public servant" means—

a Crown servant;
a member, officer or servant of a designated agency, competent authority or transferee body (within the meaning of the Financial Services Act 1986);
an officer or servant of a recognised self-regulating organisation, recognised investment exchange or recognised clearing house (within the meaning of that Act);
any person declared by an order for the time being in force under subsection (5) to be a public servant for the purposes of this section.

If it appears to the Secretary of State that the members, officers or employees of or persons otherwise connected with any body appearing to him to exercise public functions may have access to unpublished price sensitive information relating to securities, he may by order declare that those persons are to be public servants for the purposes of this section.

The power to make an order under subsection (5) shall be exercisable by statutory instrument and an instrument containing such an order shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.