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No more secrets
The Information Commissioner has decided that private waste management companies can constitute public authorities and, as such, are subject to the same freedom of information laws that affect public institutions. The decision will allow members of the public to directly request environmental information from waste companies.
The Commissioner's decision resulted from a case between Lewes District Friends of the Earth (FOE) and South Downs Waste Services Ltd (part of Veolia, one of the largest waste management corporations in the UK). After South Downs Waste Services denied FOE's request for information about the environmental assessments surrounding its proposal for an incinerator in Newhaven, FOE's lawyers wrote to the Information Commissioner to object. The Commissioner agreed, finding that South Downs Waste Services is a public authority insofar as it is under contract to East Sussex County Council and Brighton and Hove City Council.
In response to the judgment, Phil Michaels, Head of Legal at FOE's Rights and Justice Centre, said: "In the past, waste companies have tried to wriggle out of releasing information to the public. Now it is clear that the public is legally entitled to know how their waste is treated by these companies. People all over the country can now get hold of information they may need to challenge controversial proposals, like plans to build new incinerators."
