Organisations Join Forces To Protest Environmental Scrutiny Secrecy Plans
The News Media Association has teamed up with 40 leading environmental, open government and other organisations to sign a letter, coordinated by the Campaign for Freedom of Information, urging the Government to drop a secrecy provision from draft legislation to improve environmental protection after Brexit.
The organisations say the prohibition on disclosure “is wholly at odds with the public’s right to information” under existing UK legislation.
The draft Environment (Principles and Governance) Bill would establish the Office of Environmental Protection. One of its functions would be to investigate complaints of serious failure by public authorities to comply with environmental laws. This is intended to replace Europe’s environmental scrutiny functions after Brexit.
Although the OEP would normally have to reveal that it was investigating a particular authority or had found it had breached environmental law, most other information would be withheld:
- The OEP would be prohibited from disclosing information obtained from a public authority under investigation unless the authority consented;
- The public authority being investigated would be prohibited from disclosing correspondence or formal notices from the OEP unless the OEP consented;
- The OEP would be required to copy its correspondence with a public authority to the relevant minister but could not disclose the minister’s reply without the minister’s consent.
The OEP could publish its final investigation report if it chose to – but the public would have no right of access to it.
In the joint letter to the Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers the organisations say this “would impose a degree of secrecy which does not apply to any other UK environmental regulator.” The restriction is “even more onerous” than that applied by the European Commission to information about investigations into breaches of EU environmental laws.
The letter points out the public has a right of access to environmental information under the UK’s Environmental Information Regulations. These allow information to be withheld if disclosure would “adversely affect” an investigation. But the information must still be released if the public interest favours disclosure. The authority also has to apply a “presumption in favour of disclosure.” The letter says none of these important conditions would apply under the draft bill.
The letter adds: “If the OEP, public authority or minister (as the case may be) did not wish the information to be released, it would be withheld. There would be no need to show that disclosure would be harmful. The public interest in the information would be irrelevant. This would reverse decades of progress in opening up environmental information.”
The signatories call on the Government to omit this “damaging and unjustified restriction on the public’s right to environmental information.”
During the World News Media Congress in Glasgow earlier this year, the Board of WAN-IFRA said it opposed the Bill, citing the proposals as one of a number of “critical issues that threaten to undermine press freedom in the country” as part of a press freedom resolution.
Calling on the Government to address the issues, the Board called for the extension of freedom of information legislation to Government contractors at both the local and national level.
The Board said it opposes current draft Bills calling for new restrictions on access to environmental information and NHS secrecy, including NHS Trust inquiries into serious patient safety incidents.
The CFOI letter has been signed by:
- Amnesty International UK Section
- ARTICLE 19
- Bat Conservation Trust
- Biofuelwatch
- Buglife
- Bumblebee Conservation Trust
- Butterfly Conservation
- Campaign for Freedom of Information
- Campaign for National Parks
- Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales
- Campaign to Protect Rural England
- Clean Air in London
- ClientEarth
- Compassion in World Farming
- Cycling UK
- Friends of the Earth
- Global Justice Now
- Global Witness
- Good Law Project
- Greenpeace
- Guy Linley-Adams Solicitor
- Law Centres Network
- MySociety
- National Union of Journalists
- News Media Association
- No 3rd Runway Coalition
- Open Rights Group
- Renewable Energy Foundation
- Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
- Salmon and Trout Conservation UK
- Sustain
- The Brexit Civil Society Alliance
- The Ecologist
- The Ramblers
- Transparency International UK
- Trees for Cities
- Unlock Democracy
- Whale and Dolphin Conservation
- Wild Justice
- WWF-UK