What information are you entitled to, and what happens after you receive it?

There are two key pieces of legislation that support a citizen wishing for information held by **public authorities** in Wales: The Freedom of Information Act (2000), and the Environmental Information Regulations (2004). The latter, as its name suggests, specifically relates to environmental information.

The list of authorities considered “public authorities” are the same for both laws, and include a huge number of authorities within education, health, police, and national and local governance. In Wales this includes authorities such as county and community councils, internal drainage boards, and very specific bodies such as “A joint planning board constituted for an area in Wales outside a National Park by an order under section 2(1B) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990“. In terms of water, the Regulations importantly cover Natural Resources Wales. The Environmental Information Regulations have included Dwr Cymru since 2015.

There is a lot of overlap between the EI Regulations and the FOI Act. Due to most information relevant to rivers being covered by the EI Regulations, we focus on them below and indicate where the FOI Act is similar or different. For more information on the FOI Act, see here.

The Environmental Information Regulations (2004)

These regulations, in addition to supporting citizens in their quest for information, also obligate public authorities to “make environmental information available proactively“. They can be traced back to the Aarhus convention which 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.

Under the FOI Act also, certain information (specified in guidance) must be proactively published, with separate guidance available for data sets.

In addition to official documents and data, you can request drafts, emails, notes, recordings of telephone conversations and CCTV recordings under these Regulations (and under the FOI Act also). The key requirement is that the information you request is “environmental”, which is relatively intuitive in terms of what is included. Note, that even financial information can be included where it relates to building projects impacting the environment. You can request information verbally or in writing (FOI requests in writing only).

Under these regulations (direct quote from here)

• everybody has a right to access environmental information. Disclosure of information should be the default – in other words, information should be kept private only when there is a good reason and the Regulations allow it;
• an applicant (requester) does not need to give a reason for wanting the information. On the contrary, the information provider must justify refusing information;
• all requests for information must be treated equally;
• any information the information provider releases under the Regulations should be released as if to the world at large.

The last bullet is important to understand. If you receive data or information with no copyright information enclosed, you are free to share it non-commercially (commercial use needs to be requested). If the data/information is given to you with a copyright notice, simply follow that copyright. Public bodies usually use the Open Government License and are encouraged to use it. Basically, it means you are free to share the data as long as you credit the source and include the license information. This same principle applies for the FOI Regulations.

According to the Regulations, you should receive a response ‘as soon as possible and no later than 20 working days after the date of receipt of the request’. If your request is voluminous, an extra 20 days can be used by the organisation to fulfil your request. A response includes the duty to inform you of any reason under which the organisation cannot provide you with the information requested. If further information is required for the organisation to be able to fulfil your request, the 20-day clock starts again once you provide them with that further information. Here, the FOI Act is different – an extension can be longer than 20 days.

Defra have a unit dedicated to offer policy advice and guidance on the Regulations, on 020 7270 8885/8884

GDPR

Some activists may be concerned about what data public authorities may hold about them. Individuals have a right of access to information held about them under the UK General Data Protection Regulations (the UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (the DPA2018). This includes the right to ask for that data to be deleted.