| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act to amend section six of the Official Secrets Act 1920. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 2 & 3 Geo. 6. c. 121 |
| Territorial extent | United Kingdom[b] |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 23 November 1939 |
| Commencement | 23 November 1939[c] |
| Repealed | 20 December 2023 |
| Other legislation | |
| Amends | Official Secrets Act 1920 |
| Repealed by | National Security Act 2023 |
| Relates to | Official Secrets Act 1911 |
Status: Repealed | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Revised text of statute as amended | |
| Text of the Official Secrets Act 1939 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, fromlegislation.gov.uk. | |
TheOfficial Secrets Act 1939[a] (2 & 3 Geo. 6. c. 121) was anact of theParliament of the United Kingdom. It substituted a new section 6 into theOfficial Secrets Act 1920, which limited the scope of that offence to offences under section 1 of theOfficial Secrets Act 1911 (it had formerly applied to all offences under theOfficial Secrets Act 1911 and to all offences under that act).
It was enacted in reaction to the "Sandys affair" in 1938, whenDuncan Sandys MP was threatened with prosecution under section 6 in an attempt to get him to disclose who had given him information about the inadequate state of the air defences around London.
The whole act was repealed by and replaced with theNational Security Act 2023.[1][2][3]
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