How to Deal with Environmental Information Requests in Schools
What is an Environmental Information Request?
The Environmental Information Regulations 2004 were created to provide public access to environmental information held by public authorities to encourage greater awareness of issues that affect the environment.
Schools have two main obligations under the Regulations. You must:
- Make environmental information available proactively.
- Respond to requests for environmental information.
What is Environmental Information?
The term Environmental information is defined in regulation 2(1) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
In short, it refers to all information which relates to the environment in any way, please see a non-exhaustive list of the types of requests schools could expect below:
- Requests for information about buildings and constructions on school sites.
- Requests for information relating to planning permissions and land sales.
- Requests for information relating to waste and contamination.
- Any financial data in relation to environmental information / land use of school sites.
If you are not sure whether a request falls under environmental information, please ask your Data Protection Officer for assistance.
Who can make a request?
Anyone can make a request for information under the Regulations, including members of the public, journalists, researchers, and campaign groups.
An EIR request can be made either in writing or verbally, and they do not need to specifically quote the Environmental Information Regulations, if the request relates to Environmental information, you treat it as such.
Do we have to respond to every request?
Yes, you are required to respond to every request, even if your response is that you do not hold that information.
There are exceptions to consider under the Regulations which allow you to withhold information if it is deemed in the public interest to do so. In this case you are still required to respond to the request with your reasoning for withholding the data.
Your Data Protection Officer will help you decide if an exception applies.
What if I don’t know the answer?
You only have to disclose information you hold in a reportable format; you do not need to create information merely to respond to the request. If you do not hold recorded information, you do not have to respond to that question.
You are obligated to offer the requester guidance and support. If you do not have the requested recorded information, you must inform the requester of this. You should clarify why that information is unavailable and share any relevant details you do hold that might assist with their request.
When do we have to respond by?
Under the Regulations, you must respond to the request within 20 working days, however there is provision to extend the response time to 40 working days if the request is complex and voluminous.
How do we respond to a EIR Request?
Here at Education Data Hub, we provide schools with a ‘How to Guide’ for dealing with Environmental Information Requests.
This works in a similar way to our Freedom of Information process, the first step is for the school to log the request and from there you will receive correspondence from us, as your data protection officer, with advice on how to deal with the request. This will contain a template acknowledgement letter and a response template for your answer.
If you are unsure whether a request falls under Freedom of Information Act 2000 or Environmental Information Regulations 2004, our client schools can forward the request to us, and we will decide for you.
It is good practice to keep a log of all requests you have received, the relevant dates and your response, to produce an audit trail from your school.
If you require any assistance dealing with Environmental Information Requests, or any other Requests, please get in touch at [email protected]