North Sea Transition Authority

The complainant requested from the North Sea Transition Authority (‘NSTA’) information relating to the potential environmental impact of Shell's Brent decommissioning project in the North Sea. The NSTA stated that it did not hold the requested information.
The Commissioner’s decision is that the NSTA does hold the requested information in accordance with regulation 3(2)(a) of the EIR. In addition, in failing to respond to the internal review within the statutory timescale, the Commissioner has determined that NSTA breached regulation 11(4) of the EIR.
The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation: Issue a fresh response to the complainant, and either disclose the information or, in respect of any information it wishes to withhold, issue a refusal notice within the meaning of regulation 14 of the EIR specifying the exception relied on to withhold the information. The response should not rely on a claim that NSTA does not hold the information within the meaning of regulation 3(2) of the EIR.
The public authority must take these steps within 35 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of FOIA and may be dealt with as a contempt of court. First-tier tribunal (General Regulatory chamber) information rights appeal EA/2023/0288 appeal withdrawn.