Access to Environmental Information

There are two kinds of exemption within the Environmental Information Regulations: the ‘Stand Alone Exemptions’ and the ‘Adverse Effect Exemptions’.

If a decision is taken to withhold information, it must be linked to a specific exemption and all arguments behind the decision must be clearly documented and made available to the member of the public making the request.

In cases where one of the five ‘stand alone’ exemptions applies, we may make a decision to withhold information. However, we will only do this if a decision is made that the public interest in withholding the information is stronger than the public interest in disclosing the information.

• Information is not held [in which case we would refer you to where you may be able to find the information]
• Request is manifestly unreasonable – for example – “Please give me all of the information you hold on the environment”. [This exemption would be used very sparingly and we would do our best to provide advice and assistance where possible]
• Request is too general [in which case we would seek further clarification from you]
• Request is for unfinished documents or data [n which case we would give you an estimated time for completion]
• Request is for internal communication [further clarification on this will follow]

The Regulations require that we must consider whether or not it is in the public interest to have that information released. If it is in the public interest to release the information then we shall do exactly that.

In cases where one of the seven ‘adverse effect’ exemptions applies, we may make a decision to withhold information. However, we will only do this if a decision is made that the public interest in withholding the information is stronger than the public interest in disclosing the information and that the disclosure of the information would ‘adversely affect’ one of the following:

• Confidentiality of proceedings
• International relations / public security / defence
• The course of justice and right to fair trial
• Commercial confidentiality
• Intellectual property rights
• Personal / voluntary data
• Environmental protection

We cannot withhold the information on the grounds that its release ‘relates to’ any of the interests above – we have to be sure that release of the information would have an adverse effect on the interest. We must also make it clear as to how we believe the release of the information would adversely affect the interest.