Environmental information

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As with freedom of information (FOI) enquiries, you can ask the council to provide you with environmental information by way of a formal request. If you request environmental information which the Council holds, then unless an exemption applies (similar to FOI exemptions), you are entitled to be given the information within 20 working days, or 40 working days if your enquiry is particularly complicated. If the Council decides the volume and complexity of your enquiry means that the extended 40 working days response time applies, you'll be notified in writing. There is a fee for providing environmental information, although the specific charging rules are different to those applying to FOI enquiries.

What is 'environmental information'?
'Environmental information' is defined as "any information on the state of the elements of the environment, such as air and atmosphere, water, soil, land, landscape and natural sites including wetlands, coastal and marine areas, biological diversity and its components, including genetically modified organisms, and the interaction among these elements; factors likely to affect the environment; measures to protect it; reports on environmental legislation; and any other matter which directly affects the environment".

It can be seen that this is a very wide definition and that much information held by the council will fall into this definition.

Fees and charges
There are no upper or lower limits to the fee which may be charged for environmental information. Instead, the regulations state that the fees shall not exceed "a reasonable amount" and must not exceed the actual costs of producing the information. Where a fee is charged, payment must be made in advance of providing the information. The applicant gets written notice of this and thereafter, has 60 working days to pay. The response timescale is suspended during this time. The council must publish a schedule of charges and information on the circumstances in which a fee may be charged, waived or has to be paid in advance.

The fee to be charged in all cases will be based on the full chargeable elements to make sure that the Council recovers its costs.

Councils cannot charge for allowing access to registers of environmental information, or for allowing an applicant to examine information at council offices (as opposed to being given a copy of it).

Schedule of charges
The council can include the following in the schedule of charges:

• cost of locating, retrieving and assembling information - the costs, but not the fee, will be calculated in terms of the Freedom of Information (Fees for Required Disclosure) (Scotland) Regulations 2004. This means the council will calculate the fee for an environmental information request on the same basis as is laid down for Freedom of Information requests, i.e. actual staff time capped at a maximum of £15 per hour plus any costs associated with putting the information into a particular format, copying and postage costs.
• Copies are charged at a rate of 11p per copy. (This cost is reviewed from time to time at the discretion of the council).

Payment in advance:

• All fees for environmental information requests have to be paid in advance to keep them consistent with the Freedom of Information rules.

Waiver of fees:

• Councils may waive the fee if satisfied that it would be uneconomical to issue a fees notice and process payment, or if satisfied that it would otherwise be reasonable to do so.

Contact us
Please contact us with any enquiries or comments about this page:

• phone: 0141 840 3703
• email: cs@renfrewshire.gov.uk
• write to: The Archivist
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