Third parties do not generally have the right of access to PST material. There is nevertheless provision for representatives of the public to be granted access to archived documents.
A written request that demonstrates that the disclosure serves a legitimate purpose that is beneficial to society must be submitted.
Chapter 3-5, first paragraph of the Prosecuting Practice Code stipulates that “(w)hen it is reasonable and does not entail a disproportionate disadvantage to other interests, the Director General of Public Prosecutions can decide that a member of the lower prosecuting authority may or shall give information to be used in research and that this shall occur without regard to the prosecuting authority’s duty of secrecy pursuant to chapter 3-1.”
This means that on certain terms, access can be given to PST’s archives to researchers, authors and journalists.