Statutory Instrument | |
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Citation | SI 2004/3391 |
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Introduced by | Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs |
Territorial extent | United Kingdom |
Dates | |
Made | 21 December 2004 |
Commencement | 1 January 2005 |
Revoked | — |
Other legislation | |
Made under | European Communities Act 1972 |
Transposes | European Council Directive 2003/4/CE |
Status: Current legislation | |
Text of statute as originally enacted | |
Revised text of statute as amended |
This article is part of a series on |
Politics of the United Kingdom |
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The Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR), UK Statutory Instrument SI 2004 No. 3391, provide a statutory right of access to environmental information held by UK public authorities. The regulations came into force on 1 January 2005. [1] The regulations were made by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs under the authority provided by the European Communities Act 1972, entering into force on 1 January 2005, along with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The Regulations covers UK Central Government and public authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scottish public authorities are covered by the Environmental Information Regulations (Scotland) 2004 (EISR). [2]
The Environmental Information Regulations 2004 implement the European Council Directive 2003/4/CE on public access to environmental information in the UK. [3] The Directive in turn has as its source the Aarhus Convention.
The main objective of the regulations is encapsulated in Regulation 4, which requires the relevant data holder to engage in a proactive exercise to make the information available for inspection "by electronic means" which inevitably requires the data to be made publicly available online or via an electronic device (e.g. a computer terminal) in a public place. Recognising the reality of a wide diversity of information, the Regulations allow alternative formats, but require that they be "easily accessible" to the public. There is no denying that the principal obligation placed on holders of Environmental Information is public electronic dissemination.
Environmental information includes information about air, water, soil, land, flora and fauna, energy, noise, waste and emissions. Environmental Information also includes information about decisions, policies and activities that affect the environment. [4]
It is accepted by the UK Government that most maps will contain environmental information. [5]
The coverage of the Environmental Information Regulations is greater than that of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, [6] although there are bodies such as the BBC which are covered by the Freedom of Information Act but not by the EIR. The Freedom of Information Act sets out a list of the bodies and classes of bodies that are public authorities, the EIR is less prescriptive.
Security service MI5 acknowledges that its activities are covered by the EIR, [7] and has published Environmental Information on its website. [8] [9]
The regulations were originally interpreted by the Information Commissioner to include water companies; [10] [ failed verification ] however, the Upper Tribunal ruled that they are not subject to the Regulations. [11] [12]
This was later superseded by the CJEU ruling, [13] which extended public authorities to a much wider definition including private companies.
Requests for information under the Regulations can be made in writing or verbally, unlike requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which must be made in writing. The exceptions that public authorities can use to withhold information under the Regulations are narrower in their scope and application than the exemptions contained in the Act. As with the Act, public authorities have 20 working days from the receipt of a request to provide the information to the requester or to explain the exceptions that apply.
The Information Commissioner is responsible for dealing with complaints against public authorities related to EIR. The Scottish Information Commissioner is responsible for dealing with complaints against public authorities related to equivalent Scottish regulations. [14]
Upon entry into force of these regulations, they replaced the Environmental Information Regulations 1992 and the Environmental Information Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1993 and two other statutory instruments that amended those regulations.
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, regulating the powers of public bodies to carry out surveillance and investigation, and covering the interception of communications. It was introduced by the Tony Blair Labour government ostensibly to take account of technological change such as the growth of the Internet and strong encryption.
The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom implemented to comply with European Council Directive 79/409/EEC on the conservation of wild birds. In short, the act gives protection to native species, controls the release of non-native species, enhances the protection of Sites of Special Scientific Interest and builds upon the rights of way rules in the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. The Act is split into 4 parts covering 74 sections; it also includes 17 schedules.
Freedom of information laws allow access by the general public to data held by national governments and, where applicable, by state and local governments. The emergence of freedom of information legislation was a response to increasing dissatisfaction with the secrecy surrounding government policy development and decision making. In recent years Access to Information Act has also been used. They establish a "right-to-know" legal process by which requests may be made for government-held information, to be received freely or at minimal cost, barring standard exceptions. Also variously referred to as open records, or sunshine laws, governments are typically bound by a duty to publish and promote openness. In many countries there are constitutional guarantees for the right of access to information, but these are usually unused if specific support legislation does not exist. Additionally, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16 has a target to ensure public access to information and the protection of fundamental freedoms as a means to ensure accountable, inclusive and just institutions.
The role of information commissioner differs from nation to nation. Most commonly it is a title given to a government regulator in the fields of freedom of information and the protection of personal data in the widest sense. The office often functions as a specialist ombudsman service.
The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom designed to protect personal data stored on computers or in an organised paper filing system. It enacted provisions from the European Union (EU) Data Protection Directive 1995 on the protection, processing, and movement of data.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is a non-departmental public body which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. It is the independent regulatory office dealing with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 across the UK; and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and, to a limited extent, in Scotland. When they audit an organisation they use Symbiant's audit software.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that creates a public "right of access" to information held by public authorities. It is the implementation of freedom of information legislation in the United Kingdom on a national level. Its application is limited in Scotland to UK Government offices located in Scotland. The Act implements a manifesto commitment of the Labour Party in the 1997 general election, developed by David Clark as a 1997 White Paper. The final version of the Act was criticised by freedom of information campaigners as a diluted form of what had been proposed in the White Paper. The full provisions of the act came into force on 1 January 2005. The Act was the responsibility of the Lord Chancellor's Department. However, freedom of information policy is now the responsibility of the Cabinet Office. The Act led to the renaming of the Data Protection Commissioner, who is now known as the Information Commissioner. The Office of the Information Commissioner oversees the operation of the Act.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is Scotland's environmental regulator and national flood forecasting, flood warning and strategic flood risk management authority. Its main role is to protect and improve Scotland's environment. SEPA does this by helping business and industry to understand their environmental responsibilities, enabling customers to comply with legislation and good practice and to realise the economic benefits of good environmental practice. One of the ways SEPA does this is through the NetRegs environmental guidance service. It protects communities by regulating activities that can cause harmful pollution and by monitoring the quality of Scotland's air, land and water. The regulations it implements also cover the storage, transport and disposal of radioactive materials.
Freedom of information (FOI) in the United Kingdom refers to members of the general public's right to access information held by public authorities. This right is covered in two parts:
The Environmental Protection Act 1990 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that as of 2008 defines, within England and Wales and Scotland, the fundamental structure and authority for waste management and control of emissions into the environment.
A Scottish statutory instrument is subordinate legislation made by the Scottish Ministers, as well as subordinate legislation made by public bodies using powers provided to be exercisable by Scottish statutory instrument. SSIs are the main form of subordinate legislation in Scotland, being used by default to exercise powers delegated to the Scottish Ministers, the Lord Advocate, the High Court of Justiciary, the Court of Session, and the King-in-Council.
The Scottish Information Commissioner is responsible for the promotion and enforcement of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) and the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004(Scottish EIRs). The current Scottish Information Commissioner is David Hamilton who took up post on 16 October 2023.
The Information Tribunal was a tribunal non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom. It was established as the Data Protection Tribunal to hear appeals under the Data Protection Act 1984. Its name was changed to reflect its wider responsibilities under other freedom of information legislation, as it then heard appeals from notices issued by Information Commissioner under two Acts of Parliament, the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and two related Statutory Instruments, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
The Equality Act 2010, often erroneously called the Equalities Act 2010, is an act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed during the Brown ministry with the primary purpose of consolidating, updating and supplementing the numerous prior Acts and Regulations, that formed the basis of anti-discrimination law in mostly England, Scotland and Wales; some sections also apply to Northern Ireland. These consisted, primarily, of the Equal Pay Act 1970, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Race Relations Act 1976, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and three major statutory instruments protecting discrimination in employment on grounds of religion or belief, sexual orientation and age.
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Fish Legal, based at Leominster, Herefordshire, is a not-for-profit organisation of dedicated lawyers who use the law on behalf of anglers to fight polluters and others who damage or threaten the water environment. It was founded in 1948 by Patrick Shumack, Esq. as the Anglers Cooperative Association (ACA), but changed its name in 1994 to Anglers Conservation Association.
The Access to Information Central Clearing House was established by the UK Government in January 2005. The Central Clearing House was set up to ensure consistent application of the Data Protection Act 1998, the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and the Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs) across Central Government. The Central Clearing House provides expert advice for cases referred to the Information Commissioner or Information Tribunal.
The use of electronic surveillance by the United Kingdom grew from the development of signal intelligence and pioneering code breaking during World War II. In the post-war period, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) was formed and participated in programmes such as the Five Eyes collaboration of English-speaking nations. This focused on intercepting electronic communications, with substantial increases in surveillance capabilities over time. A series of media reports in 2013 revealed bulk collection and surveillance capabilities, including collection and sharing collaborations between GCHQ and the United States' National Security Agency. These were commonly described by the media and civil liberties groups as mass surveillance. Similar capabilities exist in other countries, including western European countries.