Section 2 of the Investigation Law of 1991 reads as follows:

"Disclosure

2. (1) where any information is subject to an obligation of secrecy imposed by or under any enactment (including in an enactment passed after this Law) the obligation shall not have effect to prohibit the disclosure of that information to any person authorised by Her Majesty's Procureur, but any information disclosed under this subsection may only be disclosed by such a person for the purpose of a prosecution in the Bailiwick or elsewhere.

(2) without prejudice to his power to enter into agreements apart from this subsection, Her Majesty's Procureur may enter into an agreement for the supply of information to or by him subject, in either case, to an obligation not to disclose the information concerned otherwise than for a specified purpose.

(3) Subject to subsection (1) and to any provision of an agreement for the supply of information which restricts the disclosure of the information supplied, information obtained by Her Majesty's Procureur or a person authorised by him may be disclosed to any person or body for the purposes of any investigation of an offence or prosecution in the Bailiwick or elsewhere. [our underlining]

Similar points arise on the words "prosecution in the Bailiwick or elsewhere" in section 2(1), on the power to make agreements in section 2(2), and on the words "disclosed in the interests of justice to any person or body for the purposes of any investigation of an offence or prosecution in the Bailiwick or elsewhere". HM Procureur relies on these words as entitling him to disclose information to state authorities in the Ukraine and Finland, while the applicants contend that these words do not so empower him, alternatively if they do, that the section is outside the powers of the States of Guernsey.

We take first the question of interpretation. In our judgment the Investigation Law of 1991 has to be interpreted as enabling HM Procureur to respond to requests from any other country in the world, because (1) that is the natural meaning of the words used, and (2) viewed against the background of the United Kingdom legislation, and in particular the 1987