UK Rivers failing to meet EU Standards for pollution and biodiversity.

The request was successful.

Alessandro Sorrentino

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from you:

I would like to request an Excel document that contains the following information:

1) For the years between 2000 and 2017, how many of the Rivers in the United Kingdom have failed to meet the EU Standards for pollution and biodiversity? I would request the year and then the number of rivers that have failed to pass, in addition to the total number rivers inspected, so that I would be able to produce a percentage.

2) I would like to know if there is any documentation, if so please could you provide it, in relation to the retention or repelling of the EU standards for pollution and biodiversity following the UK's exit from the EU in 2019.

Please provide the information in the form an Excel Documents

If it is not possible to provide the information requested due to the information exceeding the cost of compliance limits identified in Section 12, please provide advice and assistance, under the Section 16 obligations of the Act, as to how I can refine my request.

If you can identify any ways that my request could be refined I would be grateful for any further advice and assistance.

If you have any queries please don’t hesitate to contact me via email or phone and I will be very happy to clarify what I am asking for and discuss the request, my details are outlined below.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to your response.

Yours faithfully,
Alessandro Sorrentino

Enquiries, Unit, Environment Agency

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National Requests, Environment Agency

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Dear Alessandro

 

Thank you for your request for environmental data.

 

We are treating your enquiry as an Information Request under the
Environmental Information Regulations 2004/Freedom of Information Act
2000.

 

Your request will be dealt with by our National Request Team under
reference NR98644.

 

The Environment Agency covers England only.

 

For Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, please see the links below:

 

[1]http://www.sepa.org.uk/

 

[2]http://www.doeni.gov.uk/niea/

 

[3]http://www.naturalresourceswales.gov.uk/

 

The Environment Agency’s obligation under the relevant legislation is to
provide you with the requested information within 20 working days from the
date your enquiry is received, but we shall endeavour to respond as soon
as we can.

 

In the meantime should you have any queries regarding this request please
contact us at: [4][email address]

 

Kind Regards

 

National Request Team

Contact Centre Services - Part of Operations, Regulation & Customer

 

( Tel: 03708 506 506

: Web Site: [5]www.gov.uk/environment-agency

 

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Alessandro Sorrentino

Dear National Requests,

Please may you send me a response to the referenced request, as more than 20 working days have passed.
If it is not possible to provide me with a response at this stage, please advise me when a response will be provided.

Yours sincerely,
Alessandro Sorrentino

National Requests, Environment Agency

5 Attachments

Dear Alessandro Sorrentino

 

Re: Request for information about UK Rivers failing to meet EU Standards
for pollution and biodiversity

 

Thank you for your request received on 31 August 2018.

 

Rivers in the United Kingdom have failed to meet the EU Standards for
pollution and biodiversity.

 

Our data provider has asked us to refer you to the State of Environment
report
[1]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...
(see figure 2),

 

The recent raw data can be found on the link below:

[2]https://ea.sharefile.com/d-sa8cce7752384...

 

Please refer to [3]Open Government Licence which explains the permitted
use of this information.

 

Retention or repelling of the EU standards for pollution and biodiversity
following the UK's exit from the EU in 2019.

 

We are unable to provide you with the information on ‘retention or
repelling of the EU standards for pollution and biodiversity following the
UK's exit from the EU in 2019.’

 

However you may find our public consultation response (published 2 August
2018) to Defra on environmental principles and governance useful,  this
will give you an insight into the Environment Agency’s position and its
response to Defra
[4]https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/sy...

 

As the public consultation linked above demonstrates the governance and
standards to be applied after the UK exits Europe are in very much in
development.

 

As such we are withholding because this would be ‘internal communications’
and ‘thinking in private’ and include correspondence between the
Environment Agency and Defra to develop new standards for application
after the UK’s Exit from Europe.

 

As a public body we are required under the Freedom of Information
Act/Environmental Information Regulations to give reasons for this
refusal.  We also need to show that we have considered the Public Interest
balance between refusal and disclosure.  You can find the details in the
appendix below.

If you are not satisfied you can contact us within 2 calendar months to
ask for our decision to be reviewed. We shall review our response to your
request and give you our decision in writing within 40 working days.

 

If you are still not satisfied following this, you can raise a concern
with the Information Commissioner, who is the statutory regulator for
Freedom of Information and the Environmental Information Regulations.  The
contact details are:

 

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113

Website: [5]http://ico.org.uk

 

Yours sincerely

 

National Request Team

National Customer Contact Centre

Environment Agency

 

( Tel: 03708 506 506

: Web Site: [6]www.gov.uk/environment-agency

 

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Appendix

 

Relevant exceptions

The exceptions that apply to the withheld information are:

 

EIR Regulation 12(8) which states that for the purposes of paragraph
(4)(e), internal communications includes communications between government
departments.

‘A public authority may refuse to disclose information to the extent that

(e) the request involves the disclosure of internal communications.’

Internal communications include internal emails, attendance notes, minutes
of meetings, records of phone conversations, recommendations and briefing
notes etc.

EIR Regulation 12(4)(e) applies as the request involves the disclosure of
internal communications and it would be harmful to release these
communications because this could harm our ability to advise Defra.

‘Regulation 12 (5)……disclosure would adversely affect -
(d) the confidentiality of the proceedings of that or any other public
authority where such confidentiality is provided by law.’

 

The Public Interest Test

 

We have weighed the public interest factors in favour of maintaining the
exceptions and find that they outweigh the public interest factors in
disclosing the information. In carrying out the public interest test we
have considered:

 

1. Factors in favour of releasing the information:

 

 

·        General presumption of openness. The Environment Agency would
only withhold information if it is sure that disclosure would cause
substantial harm. Here the harm is that much of our internal discussions
are based on policy which is not yet finalised nor agreed. To release
incomplete information which could affect future policy would be
potentially damaging to our reputation as a regulator and to the
individual involved.

 

·        General need to promote accountability and transparency.

 

·        Contribution to public debate of issues. There is clearly a high
level of public participation in the debate over EU Exit and a great deal
of uncertainty about what this will mean for our country over the coming
months and years.

 

·        Contribution to effective running of the public sector. There is
an element here of questioning whether the most appropriate decisions are
being taken in the public sector in relation to EU Exit.

 

2. Factors in favour of withholding the information:

 

·        Prejudicing the effective running of the Environment Agency or
other public bodies. As information on EU Exit is sensitive due to the
ongoing negotiations on the withdrawal agreement it would be potentially
damaging to share draft information until we are clearer on the
implications of the deal which is/is not agreed.

 

·        Whether information would be misleading or cause alarm. There is
public interest in making sure any documentation we disclose is factually
correct and not likely to be misleading to the public. This is relevant
here as our internal communications within our organisation are based on
the information we have at the time of writing. Many of the details of EU
Exit have not yet been agreed as we do not have the legislative landscape
as yet, therefore our information internally may be speculative or
theoretical and based on information which is now out of date. This could
create considerable confusion if released out of context.

 

As indicated, upon assessing the factors in the public interest test, we
have assessed that in relation to the whether information would be
misleading or cause alarm, we find that the factors in favour of
withholding information outweigh the public interest factors in disclosing
the information.

 

 

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