Environmental Information Regulations

The  Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) came into force on 01 January 2005 giving members of the public the right to access environmental  information held by the council.

What information do they cover?

They cover information on the state of the environment, such as:

• air, water, soil, flora, fauna (including humans), diversity, genetically modified organisms.
• information on emissions and discharges, noise, energy, radiation, waste and other such substances.
• measures and activities such as policies, plans, and agreements.
• reports, cost benefit and economic analyses.
• the state of human health and safety, contamination of the food chain.
• cultural sites and built structures (as they may be affected by environmental factors).

Obtaining information

Requests can be made in writing, verbally or online using the Environmental Information Regulations request form.

Your request must include your name and address and details of the information required.

Our response to your request

Within 20 working days of your request, we will:

• confirm if we hold the information.
• advise if a fee will be charged.
• provide you with the information (after any relevant fee has been paid), unless an exemption applies.

If your request is complex and voluminous, then we can have up to 40 working days to respond. 

Exemptions

Some information requested may not be provided by the council as there are some grounds for refusing to disclose environmental information.

Fees

The Regulations permit the council to charge for providing environmental information except in two instances mentioned below:

• access public registers or lists of environmental information; or,
• to examine the information (at a place chosen by the council).

We reserve the right to charge for the following activities at a fixed rate of £25 per person engaged per hour, for:

• determining whether we hold the information requested.
• locating the information, or a document containing the information.
• retrieving the information.
• extracting the information from documents containing it.
• other costs of making available the information (e.g. supervision of scanning and photographing of documents, postage and photocopying costs).
• postage and other means of transmission (e.g.CD-Roms) will be charged at cost and photocopying at 10p per A4 sheet.

The council will waive the first £5 of any fees or costs chargeable.

Complaints

If you are dissatisfied with the response from the council, you must write to the Executive Director of Support Services and the Economy within 40 days to ask for a review of the decision (please contact Freedom of Information). You will receive an acknowledgement of the request within 3 working days and a full response will be provided within 40 working days.  If you are still dissatisfied, you may contact the Information Commissioner.