Access to Environmental Information

Leicestershire County Council is already operating with a high degree of openness but the Environmental Information Regulations will enable you to delve deeper into the processes of the authority through accessing more of its information.

NOTE: some of the links on this page are to documents in MS-Word or Adobe Acrobat format (pdf). These are marked where relevant. You may need to download some free reader software in order to view them.
       Help with file formats used on this website

As of January 2005 you will be able to access much of LCC’s information by making a Freedom of Information request (see FOI page).

Section 39 of the Act makes environmental information exempt under the Freedom of Information Act, and provides that it should be dealt with under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 – or EIR’s – instead.

Unlike a Freedom of Information request, an Environmental Information Regulation request does not need to made in writing. It could be made over the telephone or even face to face. You don’t need to mention that you are making the request under EIR’s for the rules to apply and you can state your preference as to the format in which you would like the information to be provided to you, e.g. e-mail, letter.

Environmental information is any information in written, visual, aural, electronic, or any other material form about:

• The state of the elements of the environment (such as air, water, soil, land, landscape and natural sites, biological diversity) and the interactions between them
• Factors such as substances, energy, radiation, noise or waste affecting or likely to affect any of the elements mentioned above. For example: building development, loss of habitat, flooding, noise
• Emissions, discharges and other releases into the environment
• The state of human health and safety, conditions of human life, the food chain, cultural sites and built structures inasmuch as they are, or may be, affected by any of the elements or interaction between the elements
• Measures, such as plans, policies, programmes, activities and agreements, that affect, or are likely to affect / intend to protect, the elements or interaction between the elements
• Cost benefit and other economic analysis used in environmental decision making

If the information you need is about any of the topics mentioned above you will need to make a request under Environmental Information Regulations. It doesn’t matter whether LCC have produced the information, or whether the information has been sent to us by other organisations – if we hold the information we will be obliged to release it under EIR unless the information is covered by one or more of the Exceptions.

Any important documents that we hold will have a ‘retention period’ attached to them which means that they have to be kept for a certain amount of time before we dispose of them. If a document has already been disposed of according to our retention rules then we cannot be expected to provide the information. We only have to provide existing information. However, it is illegal to destroy information that has been requested in order to try and avoid having to disclose it. Anybody found guilty of doing this could face a personal fine of up to £5000.

Although you may request any information we hold, there are a few exemptions under the EIR’s that may mean we are not able to disclose the information you need. The exemptions are not there as an excuse to refuse access. They are merely intended to protect information that should not be released – such as the location of rare birds’ nesting sites, for example.

Unlike the Freedom of Information Act, under EIR’s there are no absolute exemptions – all the exemptions under EIR’s are subject to the public interest test.

One of the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act is for each Public Authority to adopt and maintain a ‘Publication Scheme’ (links to a pdf file). This scheme sets out:

• Classes of information published by LCC
• How the information can be obtained
• Any charge made for the information

LCC has arranged its classes within two broad areas – information relating to the organisation in general, and information relating to services provided. Within these two broad areas, a series of sub-areas have been identified.

• Info available on website – hypertext links will shortly be included (scheme is currently being redesigned) to direct you to the correct page
• Info available by post – a request can be made in writing to:

We aim to provide information listed in the Publication Scheme within 5 working days.

• Printed formats available at specified locations – available on visit to those locations.

In order to keep the Publication Scheme up to date we will review it from time to time so please use the website feedback form to let us know whether there are any documents which you feel should be included in the scheme.

We are also currently redesigning the Publication Scheme to make access to the documents within the various classes far easier than at present (this includes adding hyperlinks to relevant documents available on the website).

If the information you want to see is not held within our Publication Scheme you can send us a letter, fax or e-mail, or telephone us requesting the information and, providing it is not covered by one of the exemptions in the Regulations, we will endeavour to provide you with that information as soon as possible and in any event within 20 working days. Alternatively, you can fill in one of our on-line request forms. If you prefer, you can print out and fill in a form manually – this is available as a pdf document – and send it to us by post.

If we cannot provide the information to you for any reason (e.g. exemptions apply), or we do not have the information you request, we will let you know as soon as we are aware.

• The information or documents you would like to access
• The format you would prefer – e.g. printed leaflet, e-mail, floppy disk
• Your name and address / telephone number – you do not have to leave these details if you would prefer not to, although we will need some way of providing the information to you

Although FoI and EIR give applicants a right of access, they do not provide them with the right to re-use any information which is disclosed to them.

On 1^st July 2005 a set of Regulations was brought in called the “Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations” (PSI). These regulations have been put in place in order to help to ensure the effective re-use of information produced in the Public Sector. The Regulations provide Public Authorities with the ability to place a copyright notice on many of their documents advising of a charge for any ‘re-use’ of the information. For more information on these Regulations, and for information on how to make an application to re-use Council information obtained via an information request, please see our Re-use of Public Sector Information page.

It can be arranged for any information to be made available in large type and other formats upon request. We can also arrange to have documents translated for you if English is not your first language.

We are still awaiting guidance from Central Government on fees regulations.

LCC are continuously trying to improve the services we provide to the public. We would therefore appreciate it if you would take the time to complete the feedback form in order that we can make any necessary improvements to the website / publication scheme. You may remain anonymous if you prefer.

If, for any reason, you are not satisfied with the way LCC deals with a request you make, you can complain to the following address: