A failure on the part of any data user to observe any provision of an approved code of practice shall not of itself render the data user liable to any civil or criminal proceedings but where in any proceedings under this Ordinance a data user is alleged to have contravened a requirement under this Ordinance, being a requirement for which there was an approved code of practice at the time of the alleged contravention, subsection (2) shall have effect with respect to such code in relation to those proceedings.

Any provision of a code of practice which appears to a specified body to be relevant to a requirement under this Ordinance alleged to have been contravened shall be admissible in evidence in the proceedings under this Ordinance concerned and if it is proved that there was at any material time a failure to observe any provision of the code which appears to that body to be relevant to any matter which it is necessary to prove in order to establish a contravention of such requirement, that matter shall be taken as proved in the absence of evidence that such requirement was in respect of that matter complied with otherwise than by way of observance of that provision.

In any proceedings under this Ordinance, a code of practice which appears to a specified body to be the subject of a notice under section 12 shall be taken to be the subject of such notice in the absence of evidence to the contrary.