Environment Agency
- Date 18 January 2024
- Sector Central government
- Decision(s) EIR 11.4: Upheld, EIR 12.4.e: Partly upheld, EIR 5.2: Upheld
The complainant has requested information and reports that have been produced since April 2022 regarding the Rivers Surveillance Network (RSN) water quality monitoring scheme from the Environment Agency (EA). The EA provided some information but refused other information, citing regulations 12(4)(e) (internal communications), 12(4)(d) (material in the course of completion) and 12(4)(c) (requests formulated in too general a manner) of the EIR. The Commissioner’s decision is that the EA has appropriately cited regulation 12(4)(e) of the EIR and that the public interest lies in maintaining the exception regarding documents 1-4. However, he has decided that the public interest favours disclosing documents 5-10. The Commissioner has also found that the EA breached its obligations under regulations 5(2) and 11(4) of the EIR. The Commissioner requires the EA to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation.
• Disclose documents 5-10, minus any personal data.