Environmental Information and Water Companies

After a 6 year battle through the Courts, that went all the way to the European Court of Justice, Fish Legal won its case against Yorkshire Water and United Utilities which opened up the water companies’ impact on the environment to public scrutiny for the first time.

In Fish Legal v Information Commissioner United Utilities plc Yorkshire Water Services Ltd and the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [2015] UKUT 52 (AAC) the Upper Tribunal ruled that water companies in England & Wales are ‘public authorities’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information Regulations (2004) and so are under a legal duty to disclose environmental information they hold to the public.

The implications of this test case have been felt industry-wide.

Fish Legal originally asked the water companies for information about their CSO sewage discharges. That information request was refused.

Anglers and other campaigning groups can now ask water companies directly about sewage pollution and over-abstraction that damages rivers and coastal waters. In the past, companies refused to provide any information when asked, whilst others expressly refused to disclose information in line with this law. The Judges in this case ruled they were wrong to do so.

The water and sewerage industry causes significant damage to the environment every year. This is partly due to the very nature of what it does in treating sewage and abstracting water, but in many cases it can be due to mismanagement. As a result of Fish Legal’s win the industry has been forced to open up what it does to much greater public scrutiny.

A copy of the judgement can be read here: https://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKUT/AAC/2015/52.html

The Fish Legal case is now used as the test for determining whether a private company is a public authority for the purposes of the environmental information regulations. It has been successfully applied to other industries: https://fishlegal.net/case-studies/fish-legal-and-information-commissioners-office-v-eon-plc/

Guidance on the case is published on the Information Commissioner’s website here: https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/2021/2619024/pas-under-the-eir.pdf

But under a Government Bill currently progressing through Parliament the right is under threat.

Fish Legal has written to Secretary of State for the Environment, Therese Coffey, and Welsh Minister Julie James, to ask for confirmation that the existing legal duty on privatised water companies in England and Wales to provide details of sewage discharges and abstraction to the public on request will not be taken away under the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2022.

The Environmental Information Regulations are one of 1,781 laws currently being reviewed for repeal by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs under the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2022.

Fish Legal is petitioning for Parliament to debate whether it will retain the Environmental Information Regulations and its case law and safeguard the public’s right to access environmental information from privatised utilities.

YOU CAN SUPPORT FISH LEGAL’S FIGHT TO STOP THE GOVERNMENT TAKING AWAY YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW

EXACTLY HOW MUCH DAMAGE PRIVATISED WATER COMPANIES ARE CAUSING BY DONATING HERE