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Environmental information regulations

You have the right to access information we hold about the environment. This can include:

  • the state of the elements of the environment, such as air, water, soil, land, fauna
  • emissions and discharges, noise, energy, radiation, waste and other such substances
  • measures and activities such as policies, plans, and agreements affecting or likely to affect the state of the elements of the environment
  • the state of human health and safety, contamination of the food chain
  • cultural sites and built structures (to the extent that they may be affected by the state of the elements of the environment)
  • reports, cost-benefit and economic analyses.

Read a guide from the Information Commissioner's Office about accessing information from a public body.

Requesting information

Make a request for environmental information in writing, in person and by phone. You must:

  • provide your name and an address for correspondence
  • state clearly what information is required and how you want the information (a summary, report, email, visit to inspect records in person).

Contact details

Response time

We will respond to your request as soon as possible. We have 20 working days to complete your request although we can extend this to 40 working days for complex cases.

If your request is unclear, we will contact you to find out exactly what information you are looking for. The 20 (or 40) working days starts from the date we confirm details of your request.

Fees and charges

Most information in our publication scheme is available free of charge, or if not, costs are shown.

If you are asking for information not listed on the publication scheme, you may be required to contribute towards costs such as photocopying, translation services, or postage. We will advise you of the cost and you will need to pay this before we proceed with your request.

If the costs of getting the information will exceed £450, we can ask you to pay a fee for the extra time it will take to complete your request. If you refuse to pay then we are not obliged to supply the information you've asked for.

Withheld information

There are 14 exceptions that can be used as justification to withhold information. These include things like confidentiality of commercial or industrial information, intellectual property rights and internal communications.

We will tell you why we are not providing the information you have asked for, which exception applies, and how to get our decision reviewed.

If following the review, you are still unhappy with our response complain to the Information Commissioner.