27.1 Each Authority ("Covenanter") shall, both during the currency of this Agreement and at all times following its termination or expiry, keep private and confidential and shall not use or disclose (whether for its own benefit or that of any third party) any confidential information about the business of and/or belonging to any other Authority which has come to its attention as a result of or in connection with this Agreement, in particular (but without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing) confidential information relating to the Second Inter Authority Agreement and/or the Project Agreement.
27.2 The obligation set out in Clause 27.1 (Confidentiality and Announcements) shall not relate to information which:
27.2.1 any matter which a party can demonstrate is already or becomes generally available and in the public domain otherwise than as a result of a breach of this Clause;
27.2.2 any disclosure to enable a determination to be made under Clause 24 (Dispute Resolution);
27.2.3 any disclosure which is required pursuant to any statutory, legal (including any order of a court of competent jurisdiction) or Parliamentary obligation placed upon the party making the disclosure or the rules of any stock exchange or governmental or regulatory authority having the force of law or if not having the force of law, compliance with which is in accordance with the general practice of persons subject to the stock exchange or governmental regulatory authority concerned;
27.2.4 any disclosure of information which is already lawfully in the possession of the receiving party, prior to its disclosure by the disclosing party;
27.2.5 any disclosure of information by any Authority to any other department, office or agency of the Government or their respective advisers or to any person engaged in providing services to the Authority for any purpose related to or ancillary to the Contract; or
27.2.6 any provision of information to the Authorities' own professional advisers or insurance advisers.
27.3 Where disclosure is permitted under Clause 27.2.3 or Clause 27.2.4 (Confidentiality and Announcements), the recipient of the information shall be subject to a similar obligation of confidentiality as that contained in this Clause 27 (Confidentiality and Announcements) and the disclosing Authority shall make this known to the recipient of the information.
27.4 No Authority shall make any public statement or issue any press release or publish any other public document relating, connected with or arising out of this Agreement and/or the Second Inter Authority Agreement and/or the Project Agreement which is not in accordance with the Communications Strategy as set out in Schedule 4 (excluding any disclosure required by legal or regulatory requirements).