Guidance available to the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 in the UK

In March 2005, the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has issued the document Guidance to the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

In a second step, DEFRA has compiled a website to publish the guidance that they provide internally to Defra staff to help them handle requests for information being made under the Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations after 1 January 2005. The guidance is updated from time to time, and what is published here is the guidance currently available to staff.

UK Access To (Environmental) Information

On 1 January 2005, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000 came fully into force in the UK. These were followed by the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations which came into effect on 1 July 2005.

The UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has compiled a special site on Access to Information with the purpose to explain what these pieces of legislation mean, how to make a request and how that request will be handled. It also describes the wide range of information which Defra already publishes and where to find it.

Regulations for Access to Environmental Information in Poland

The Polish Environmental Impact assessment (EIA) act was adopted by the Polish parliament on 9th November 2000 and it has been in operation since January 1st 2001. The act comprises the following main parts:


Access to (Environmental) Information;

Public Participation in Environmental Decision-Making

Environmental Assessment Process of Plans and Programmes

Environmental Assessment Process of Development Projects;

EIA in a Transboundary Context;

Environmental Impact Assessment Commissions;

The EIA legislation is strictly connected with a number of other environmental acts, especially with: landuse planning law, building law, environmental protection act, nature conservation act, geological and mining act and motorways construction act.

As part of the new EIA act Directive 2003/4/EC on public access to environmental Information and Directive 2003/35/EC were ratified. However, it is not clear to me at this stage, how these two directives could be covered in national legislation passed several years earlier....

Spain passes legislation to implement Directives 2003/4/EC and 2003/35/EC

With LEY 27/2006, Spain has passed legislation on Juli 18, 2006 to implement both, the Environmental Information Directive 2003/4/EC and the Public Participation Directive 2003/35/EC with one legislative act. The information is available in spanish only.

Access to Information on the Environment in Ireland

With a view to giving effect to Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and Council on public access to environmental information (the AIE Directive), Regulations have been introduced in Ireland by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government with an effective commencement date of 1st May 2007.

The new Regulations, entitled the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations, S.I. 133 of 2007, (the AIE Regulations) provide that, subject to certain exceptions, information relating to the environment held by, or for, a public authority must be made available on request to any person. The Regulations repeal the previous legislative instrument for accessing environmental information, the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 1998 (S.I. 125 of 1998).

The Regulations provide a broader definition of environmental information than that which previously existed, outline the manner in which requests for information may be submitted to, and provided by, public authorities and introduce a formal appeals procedure.

The Freedom of Information Acts are not affected and will continue to operate in parallel with the new AIE Regulations.

The Minister has also introduced Official Guidelines to accompany the new AIE Regulations . These Guidelines are intended to assist and offer guidance to public authorities on the implementation of the new AIE Regulations and to applicants who wish to access environmental information.

Any queries in relation to the AIE Regulations may be addressed to environmentpolicy@environ.ie.

The Netherlands implement first and second pillar of Arhus Convention

With effect of July 2005, The Netherlands have reviewed their act on environmental information to accomodate the requirements of Directive 2003/4/EC on free access to environmental information and Directive 2003/35/EC on Public Participation and Access to Justice. The dutch version is available online.