Fish Legal v Information Commissioner
Privatised water companies can be public authorities for the purposes of the Environmental Information Directive, so they may be required to disclose environmental information.
Facts
Fish Legal, the legal arm of an angling association, asked United Utilities and Yorkshire Water, both privatised water companies, for information about discharges of sewage and other environmental matters. The companies refused, arguing that they were not public authorities under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, which implemented the Environmental Information Directive. The Upper Tribunal referred questions to the Court of Justice.
Legal principle
The Court of Justice held that bodies which are entrusted, under the legal regime applicable to them, with the performance of services of public interest, and which are vested with special powers beyond those resulting from the normal rules applicable to relations between persons governed by private law, such as powers of compulsory purchase, are public authorities. Bodies are also public authorities if they are under the control of a public body. The Upper Tribunal later held that the water companies were public authorities, because of their special powers, so they were subject to the duty to disclose environmental information.
Related cases on public participation, information and access to justice
- Austin v Miller Argent (South Wales) Ltd [2014] EWCA Civ 1012, [2015] 1 WLR 62
- Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland v Bezirksregierung Arnsberg (Trianel) Case C-115/09, [2011] ECR I-3673
- Commission v United Kingdom (Costs in environmental cases) Case C-530/11, EU:C:2014:67
- Edwards and Pallikaropoulos v Environment Agency Case C-260/11, EU:C:2013:221
- Lesoochranárske zoskupenie VLK v Ministerstvo životného prostredia Slovenskej republiky (Slovak Brown Bears) Case C-240/09, [2011] ECR I-1255
- Morgan v Hinton Organics (Wessex) Ltd [2009] EWCA Civ 107
- Office of Communications v Information Commissioner Case C-71/10, [2011] ECR I-7205
- R (Edwards) v Environment Agency (No 2) [2013] UKSC 78, [2014] 1 WLR 55
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