People who provide information to police will receive stronger legal protection under the proposed Police Bill 2026, with courts generally prohibited from revealing their identities during legal proceedings.
The new provisions, contained in Clause 158 of the Bill tabled in Parliament, designed to protect informers and others who assist police investigations from being identified in court.
Under the proposed law, information relating to an informer-protected offence would generally be inadmissible as evidence in civil or criminal proceedings if it could expose the identity of an informer.
Witnesses would also not be required to disclose the name or address of a person who provided information to police or assisted investigators.
The Bill states that witnesses may refuse to answer questions if their responses could lead to the discovery of an informer’s identity.
“Information for an informer protected offence must not be admitted in evidence in any civil or criminal proceeding,” the legislation states.
The protection extends beyond verbal testimony.
If documents, records or other evidence submitted to a court contain information that could identify an informer, the court would be required to conceal or remove those details before the material is viewed.
The Bill says courts must ensure that any passages capable of revealing the identity of an informer are “concealed from view or obliterated” where necessary.
However, the protection is not absolute.
Courts would retain the power to order disclosure if an informer is found to have deliberately provided false information.
Under the legislation, a judge may require full disclosure if satisfied that an informer “wilfully made a material statement which he or she knew or believed to be false or did not believe to be true.”
Disclosure may also be permitted where a court determines that justice cannot be fully achieved between the parties without revealing the identity of the informer or a person who assisted police.
