Environmental Information Regulations
The Environmental Information (EI) Regulations 2004 (the
Regulations) supersede previous EI regulations and came into force
on 1 January 2005 . They give a public right of access to
environmental information. Whilst the Regulations are devoted
specifically to environmental information, they have a very close
link, and are similar in purpose, to the more general Freedom of
Information (FOI) Act 2000. The key differences are:
(a) the Regulations are European law; the FOI Act is United
Kingdom legislation. As such, the Regulations could take precedence
over FOI if necessary.
(b) requests for EI do not have to be in writing; FOI requests
are meant to be in writing although at Rochford District Council we
will take a flexible approach where requests are very
straightforward.
(c) whilst EI requests should be dealt with in 20 working days
(the same as for FOI requests), up to 40 working days are allowed
if the request is complex or the volume of information is high.
(d) all exemptions under the Regulations are subject to a public
interest test (see below); in the case of FOI, some of the
exemptions are absolute.
(e) there is a specific requirement to progressively make EI
available electronically.
What is Environmental Information (EI)?
EI includes:
- the state of elements of the environment, e.g. water, air,
land, GMO's, wildlife, etc
- the state of human health and safety, food chains, cultural
sites and built structures
- substances, energy, noise, radiation or waste that may affect
the state of the elements of the environment and interaction
between them
- measures, including administrative measures, policies,
legislation, plans, programmes and environmental agreement(s), and
activities that affect/may affect, or protect, the state of the
elements of the environment and their interaction by them
- emission discharges and other releases into the
environment
- cost benefit and other economic analysis used in environmental
decision-making.
Like the Freedom of Information, the information requested can
be in any recorded format: written, visual, audio, electronic
etc.
There are some exemptions, all of which are subject to a public
interest test. This means that where EI falls into an exempted
category the Council will have to judge whether the public interest
involved in releasing the information in question overrides the
public interest in withholding it. The exemptions are where the
release of the information would adversely affect any of the
following:
(i) international relations, defence, national security, or
public safety
(ii) the course of justice
(iii) intellectual property rights (of any party)
(iv) legal confidentiality of any public authority
(v) confidentiality of commercial and industrial information
necessary to protect a legitimate economic interest (granted by
law)
(vi) the interests of the person who voluntarily, and without
legal obligation, supplied the information to the Council
(vii) the protection of the environment to which the information
relates.
The Council may refuse to disclose EI if:
- it does not hold the information (in which case we will try to
advise who does or might hold it)
- the request is manifestly unreasonable
- the request is too general (although we will try to assist the
person or organisation making the request to be more specific where
possible)
- the request relates to material still in the course of
completion - unfinished documents or incomplete data (in this case
an estimated date for completion will be given)
- the request is for the disclosure of internal
communications.
Like FOI, any complaints or appeals about the way that the
Council has handled a request for EI will be dealt with through the
Council's Corporate Complaints Procedure, with a further right of
appeal to the Information Commissioner. FOI and EI are covered by
the same Information Commissioner.
If you have any questions or comments, please contact us using
the link in the right hand menu.