Thames Water Utilities Ltd

The complainant has requested Thames Water (TW) to disclose the green bond impact reports for 2021/2022, 2022/2023 and 2023/24 and any communications about their publication. TW provided a link to the 2021/22 report but confirmed that the 2022/23 and 2023/24 were not held and therefore regulation 12(4)(a) (information not held at the time of the request) of the EIR applies. For communications about their publication, it disclosed redacted versions, confirming that certain parts were exempt under regulation 13 (personal data) and 12(4)(e) (internal communications) of the EIR. No complaint was made about TW’s application of regulation 13 of the EIR. The Commissioner’s decision is that on the balance of probabilities TW does not hold the 2022/23 and 2023/24 reports and regulation 12(4)(a) of the EIR applies. In terms of regulation 12(4)(e) of the EIR, for all but two emails the exception is engaged (two are not internal communications). For those that are, however, the Commissioner has decided that the public interest in favour of maintaining the exception is outweighed by the public interest in favour of disclosure. TW breached regulations 5(2) and 14(2) and 14(3) of the EIR. The Commissioner requires TW to disclose the information withheld under regulation 12(4)(e) of the EIR.