Information Commissioner's Office

Highways England

19 August 2015, Central government

In two separate sets of requests, the complainant has requested information from Highways England about its monitoring of compliance with the Environmental Protection Act, and feedback it has received about litter on the road network. Highways England has refused to comply with the requests which it says are manifestly unreasonable under regulation 12(4)(b) of the EIR. The Commissioner’s decision is that, on this occasion, Highways England has incorrectly applied regulation 12(4)(b) to the requests. The Commissioner requires the public authority to respond to the requests by either providing the information or relying on an exception other than regulation 12(4)(b). The public authority must take this step within 35 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of the Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.

EIR 12(4)(b): Upheld