Regulator raps United Utilities over ‘lack of transparency’ on environmental issues
North West water company, United Utilities, has been rapped by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for its lack of transparency in dealing with queries over its environmental performance.
The Warrington-based utility has attracted criticism for its poor environmental performance, the most recent being in May this year when 10 million litres of raw sewage spewed into Lake Windermere for 10 hours.
In July, regulator, Ofwat, announced that United Utilities, along with other companies, was being investigated over how they manage their wastewater assets.
Now, the ICO has announced that United Utilities has repeatedly failed to classify information as environmental.
This has been highlighted by numerous complaints the Commissioner has dealt with, where United Utilities has refused to deal with a request for information on the basis that the information being requested isn’t environmental.
Water companies are exempt from providing non-environmental information, under the Freedom of Information Act, but must respond to requests for environmental information under Environmental Information Regulations (EIR).
The company has been accused of rejecting requests for information on the grounds that the requested information was not environmental.
The ICO has cautioned water companies: “We expect transparency to be your default position”.
In its ruling, the ICO said: “Incorrectly classifying information as non-environmental, denies individuals access to important environmental information about how United Utilities works and the effect its work has on the environment.”
The report went on: “The Commissioner has reached the view that, in repeatedly failing to categorise information as environmental, either during its initial handling of the request or during any subsequent investigation of the Commissioner’s, United Utilities has repeatedly failed to issue responses to EIR requests within the statutory timeframe and so has failed to conform with part IV of the EIR Code of Practice.
“The increasing number of complaints that the Commissioner has received about United Utilities also gives him concern that United Utilities has failed to adequately train its staff in what environmental information is and so has failed to conform with part I of the EIR Code of Practice.
“Likewise, the Commissioner is concerned that United Utilities has failed to give sufficient consideration to the proactive publication of environmental information and so has failed to conform to part II of the EIR Code of Practice.”
In response, a spokesperson for United Utilities said: “We handle hundreds of environmental information requests (EIRs) every year and, in a handful of cases, the Information Commissioner’s Office clarified that the information we were asked to provide did fall under the scope of EIR.
“We have followed that clarification since we received it several months ago.”
