Environmental Information Requests

Public access to environmental information

The Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR) provide public access to environmental information held by public authorities. The Regulations provide a separate right of access to information about the environment. All other types of information are covered by the Freedom of Information Act.

You can only obtain information that would be given to anybody who asked for it, or is suitable for the general public to see.

The Regulations do not give people access to their own personal data (information about themselves), such as their health records. Individuals have a right of access to information held about them under the General Data Protection Regulations 2018 by making a subject access request.

Environmental Information includes all the information that you would expect such as:

  • Air, atmosphere, water, soil, land, landscape (and the interactions between them)
  • Information on emissions and discharges, noise, energy, radiation, waste and other such substances
  • Measures and activities such as policies, plans and agreements
  • Reports, costs benefit and economic analyses
  • The state of human health and safety, contamination of the food chain
  • Cultural sites and built structures (as they may be affected by environmental factors).

Before you make a request:

Is the information you want already on the our website?
We may already publish the information you are looking for on our website and our Publication Scheme (which includes information provided under the Transparency Code 2015) provides a guide to the information that we publish regularly or intend to publish in the future.

If the information you require is not available by other means, you can make a request in writing using the guidance below.

Guide to EIR


An EIR request can also be made verbally but a written request avoids any misunderstanding regarding what information you want. Please include your contact details to enable us to respond to you.

When you make your request, we will decide if it is covered by Freedom of Information (FOI) or Environmental Information Regulations (EIR).

What can I request?
You can request to see information which is recorded, including:

  • information held on computers
  • information held in emails
  • printed or handwritten documents
  • images, video and audio recordings.

We do not have to answer your question if this would mean creating new information or giving an opinion or judgement that is not already recorded.

 Alternatively, you can make a request to the Freedom of Information Officer 

To be valid, a request must

  1. Be in writing
  2. Include your name and an address for correspondence
  3. Describe the information being requested.

EIR requests can also be made verbally but a written request avoids any misunderstanding regarding what information you want.