Environmental Information Regulations

Current Environmental Information Regulations have been in force since December 1992. Changes to this legislation are being made under the European Communities Act 1972 and these take effect from 1st January 2005.

All public authorities that are subject to FOIA are subject to EIRs as well. EIRs, however, also apply to a wider range of organisations, additionally any body or person who has responsibility for the environment. EIRs therefore include private companies and partnerships with public authorities (water, energy, waste and transport).

Environmental Information is information about:

• The state of the elements of the environment - air, water, soil, land, flora and fauna, landscape and natural sites, genetically modified organisms, biological diversity - and the interactions between them
  
• Factors affecting or likely to affect environmental elements - energy, noise, radiation, waste, emissions, discharges and other releases into the environment
  
• Measures (including administrative measures, policies, legislation, plans, programmes and environmental agreements) and activities affecting or likely to affect elements and/or factors
  
• The state of human health and safety, conditions of human life, the food chain, cultural sites and built structures in as much as they are or may be affected by elements
  
• Cost benefit and other economic analysis used in environmental decision-making.

The regulations provide a statutory right of access to ALL recorded information about the environment that we hold, subject to certain exemptions to disclosure. This information can be in any format or media; paper, microfilm, microfiche, photos, video, audio, email, computer files, and post-it notes.

There is some information that won't be given on request. Some of our important documents have a set retention period; this means they must be kept for a certain period of time, usually to comply with statute, before they are destroyed. If we have disposed of a document in accordance with our retention schedule, we cannot be expected to provide it. However we do have a duty to tell you why the information you've asked for is not available.

In the near future, we hope to have information on the website about our records management policy, processes and our retention periods.

In addition, we may not be able to give you some of the information you have asked for if an exemption to disclosure applies; for example, if releasing the information you have requested would have a detrimental effect on the environment. However, we have a duty to tell you if we have withheld information and which one of the seven exemptions was used as justification.

You can make a request for environmental information by any method - including face-to-face, or by phone.

• You must state your name and an address for correspondence
  
• You must state clearly what information is required and how you would prefer to receive this information (for example; summary, report, email, visit to inspect records in person)
  
• You do not have to mention the Environmental Information Regulations but it would help us to help you if you do.

By post: Information Resilience & Transparency Team, Kent County Council, Room 2.71, Sessions House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ

By email: - freedomofinformation@kent.gov.uk

By fax: - 01622 696075

By phone: - 08458 247247 and ask for the Information Resilience & Transparency Team

Once you have submitted a request, we must respond 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 clarify exactly what information you are looking for. The 20 (or 40) working days starts from the date we confirm details of your request.

In some instances, a charge may apply for the supplying the information you want. If so, we will advise you of the cost and you will need to pay this before we proceed with your request. You may be required to contribute towards specific costs such as photocopying, translation services, or postage. If the costs of us looking for the information you want, extrapolating and collating it exceed £450 (which is equivalent to 18 hours @ £25 per hour), you may be asked to pay this too.

If you refuse to pay then we are not obliged to supply you with the information you've asked for.

If we refuse to deal with your request, or do not provide you with the information you have asked for, we must write to you and explain our reasons. We will also give you details of how you can get our decision reassessed. If following reassessment, you are still unhappy with our response, you can ask the Information Commissioner to review our decision.

There is no limit to how many requests that you can make, providing each request is different. If you make repeated requests for the same information, however, or are obviously trying to disrupt our operations, we do reserve the right to refuse requests.