Environmental Information Regulations 2004

Explaining your rights to access Environmental Information held by the Council

The Environmental Information Regulations allows people to request environmental information from us. This is separate from your right under Freedom of Information.

Environmental information can include:

The state of the elements of the environment such as:
- Air
- Atmosphere
- Water
- Soil
- Land
- Landscape
- Natural sites
Factors such as:
- Substances
- Noise
- Energy
- Radiation
- Waste including emissions
- Discharges
- Releases into the environment
Measures and activities such as:
- Policies
- Plans
- Legislation
- Environmental agreements, affecting or protecting the environment
Reports on how we implement environmental legislation.
Cost-benefit and economic analysis and assumptions used in decisions on the environment
The state of human health and safety, including:
- The food chain
- Conditions of human life
- Cultural sites
- Built structures

Frequently Asked Environmental Information Regulations Requests

Before you consider making a request, please take a look at the various sections of our website as the information you are looking for may already be publicly available:

How do I make a request?

You can make an Environmental Information Regulations request verbally or in writing:

By using our online request form here
By email - foi@tameside.gov.uk
By letter - The Freedom of Information Team, Level 2 (Information & Data), PO BOX 317, Ashton under Lyne, OL6 0GS
By Telephone - Call 0161 342 8355

Click the small blue Chat with us live box.

Staff are available from:

Mon-Wed 8:30am - 5pm

Thursday 8:30am - 4:30pm

Friday 8:30am - 4pm

(excluding bank holidays)

Timescale

Under EIR, the Council may take up to 20 working days to respond, counting the first working day after the request is received as the first day. If the information requested is complex or a large amount of information has been requested, the period for our response can be extended to 40 working days.

Fees and Charges

Please refer to our Fees and Charges section here: Fees and Charges

Any charge must be reasonable and must not exceed the cost of producing the information. Any charges will be made in line with ICO Guidance and Regulation 8 of EIR.

Refusing a request

There are some circumstances where we will not be able to provide the information you have requested. This includes:

if the information requested falls under an EIR Exceptions
where we do not hold the information

In these cases, we’ll send you a refusal notice quoting the exception and giving full details about why the request has been refused.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how your request has been dealt with or the response received, you should email foi@tameside.gov.uk setting out your complaint within 40 working days after the date on which you believe we did not comply with your EIR request. We will then carry out an internal review and respond within 20 working days.

If you remain unhappy after the internal review has taken place you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office within three months of receiving the response to the review by writing to:

FOI Compliance Team (complaints)
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Further information and guidance on these rights can also be obtained from the Information Commissioner's Office on ico.org.uk website.

Performance data for Freedom of Information (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulation (EIR) requests

Data will be available quarterly and will be published a month after the end of each quarter to enable us to capture the outcomes for all requests made during that time period.

Environmental Information Regulations 2004

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