Information Commissioner's Office

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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Information Commissioner's Office >> Environment Agency (Central government) [2020] UKICO IC-46325-P2D9 (8 September 2020)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKICO/2020/ic-46325-p2d9.html
Cite as: [2020] UKICO IC-46325-P2D9

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Environment Agency

The complainant has requested information relating to a serious pollution incident which resulted in a large number of fish being killed on the River Sheppey in Somerset in August 2019. The Environment Agency (EA) provided the information requested in one part of the request. However it went on to advise the complainant that its investigation was still ongoing and refused the rest of the request under regulation 12(5)(b) – adverse affect to the course of justice. During the course of the Commissioner’s investigation the EA also explained that it now considered the requested information was not held. This was on the basis that the specific details that had been requested were, in effect, the outcomes of the ongoing criminal investigation and therefore these details would not exist until the investigation was complete. It therefore also refused the request under regulation 12(4)(a). The Commissioner’s decision is that as the EA’s investigation had not resolved the issues to which the outstanding elements of the request relate, the requested information was not held. The EA was entitled to refuse the request under regulation 12(4)(a). The Commissioner does not require the public authority to take any further action in this matter.

EIR 12(4)(a): Complaint not upheld

Decision notice: IC-46325-P2D9