This informal CPD article, ‘Environmental Information Regulations Requests – the basics’, was provided by Essex County Council, the local authority for Essex, who have a vision for Essex to be a county where individuals, families and communities can thrive and prosper.
Environmental Information Regulations Requests – the basics
If you are a public authority you will be subject to the Environmental Information Regulations 20041. These regulations apply to public authorities and also some other bodies that do public work that affects the environment. The regulations stem from the Aarhus Convention. Article 1 of the Aarhus Convention states:
“In order to contribute to the protection of the right of every person of present and future generations to live in an environment adequate to his or her health and well-being, each party shall guarantee the rights of access to information, public participation in decision-making, and access to justice on environmental matters in accordance with the provisions of this Convention.”
The Regulations provide a right of access to environmental information held by those subject to the regulations unless an exception applies to its disclosure. Because disclosures under the regulations are considered to be disclosures to the world at large it is not always appropriate, or in the public interest, to make a disclosure. Exceptions exist within the regulations to protect that information. These fall into two categories:
Exceptions qualified by a Public Interest Test, which requires you to balance public interest arguments for disclosing the information against those for withholding the information. These exceptions include:
- Personal Data
- Information not held at the time of the request
- Manifestly unreasonable
- The request is too general
- The request is for unfinished documents
- Disclosure of internal communications
Exceptions qualified by a Public Interest Test and a Prejudice Test, which requires you to balance the public interest arguments and also describe the harm disclosure will, or will be likely to, cause. These exceptions include:
- International relations, defence, national security & public safety
- The course of justice, ability to receive a fair trial or the ability to conduct an inquiry of a criminal or disciplinary nature
- Intellectual Property Rights
- Confidentiality of proceedings
- Confidentiality of commercial or industrial information
- The interests of the person who provided the information
- Protection of the environment
Public authorities receiving a request verbally or in writing which describes what information is requested, provides the real name of the requester, and has a valid response address must be acknowledged and responded to within twenty working days.
You are required to confirm whether or not you hold the requested information, and if you do, to provide a copy of it unless an exception applies. If you apply an exception to withhold the requested information you must explain which exception has been applied and include any required public interest or prejudice test.
You must issue a formal refusal notice as part of your response if you are withholding information.
If is it unclear what a requester wants it is the public authority’s responsibility to give advice and guidance to help them make their request.
The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) regulate information legislation including EIR. You should read the ICO guidance2 on how exceptions apply to ensure they are engaged and correctly applied. In addition, they provide an FOI Toolkit3 which organisations can use to benchmark their compliance and create improvement plans.
We hope you found this article helpful. For more information from Essex County Council please visit their CPD Member Directory page. Alternatively, you can go to the CPD Industry Hubs for more articles, courses and events relevant to your Continuing Professional Development requirements.
References:
1 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/3391/contents/made
2 https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/foi-eir-and-access-to-information/guide-to-the-environmental-information-regulations/
3 https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/foi-eir-and-access-to-information/foi-self-assessment-toolkit/
