ARCHIVE: Registers and lists of environmental information
Public authorities are required to proactively and progressively disseminate to the public any environmental information that they hold. The information should be made available by electronic means where possible. Public authorities must also take reasonable steps to organize the information relevant to their functions and provide registers and lists of information that show what they hold and where it can be found.
The legal requirements are set out in Regulation 4 of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIRs) and Article 3(5)(c) of Directive 2003/4/EC on public access to environmental information.
In order to help public authorities, Defra has produced guidance on how to align environmental information with the seven classes of information defined by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in its model publication scheme under Section 19 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
- Defra’s guidance (PDF 260 KB)
- ICO’s guidance on the model publication scheme
- ICO’s Central Government Sector Monitoring Report on its 2009 monitoring exercise
Defra’s central register showing where statutory and other environmental registers can be found is no longer being updated, as public authorities are required to list such registers in their own publication schemes.
For additional information from the Environment Agency on how to access many public registers, please see:
- Public registers (on Environment Agency website)
Page published: 8 December 2009