The Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997

Exclusion from registers of certain confidential information N.I.

65.—(1) No information relating to the affairs of any individual or business shall be included in a register maintained under Article 63, without the consent of that individual or the person for the time being carrying on that business, if and so long as the information—

(a) is, in relation to him, commercially confidential; and

(b) is not required to be included in the register in pursuance of directions under paragraph (5);

but information is not commercially confidential for the purposes of this Article unless it is determined under this Article to be so by the enforcing authority or, on appeal, by the Planning Appeals Commission.

(2) Where it appears to an enforcing authority that any information which has been obtained by the authority under any provision of this Part might be commercially confidential, the authority shall—

(a) give to the person to whom or whose business it relates notice that that information is required to be included in the register unless excluded under this Article; and

(b) give him a reasonable opportunity—

(i) of objecting to the inclusion of the information on the ground that it is commercially confidential; and

(ii) of making representations to the authority for the purpose of justifying any such objection;

and, if any representations are made, the enforcing authority shall, having taken the representations into account, determine whether the information is or is not commercially confidential.

(3) Where, under paragraph (2), an authority determines that information is not commercially confidential—

(a) the information shall not be entered in the register until the end of the period of 21 days from the date on which the determination is notified to the person concerned;

(b) that person may appeal to the Planning Appeals Commission against the decision;

and, where an appeal is brought in respect of any information, the information shall not be entered in the register until the end of the period of 7 days from the day on which the appeal is finally determined or withdrawn.

(4) Paragraphs (6) to (8) of Article 36 shall apply in relation to appeals under paragraph (3) as they apply in relation to appeals under paragraph (5) of that Article.

(5) The Department may give to enforcing authorities which are district councils directions as to specified information, or descriptions of information, which the public interest requires to be included in registers maintained under Article 63 notwithstanding that the information may be commercially confidential.

(6) Information excluded from a register shall be treated as ceasing to be commercially confidential for the purpose of this Article at the expiry of the period of 4 years from the date of the determination by virtue of which it was excluded; but the person who furnished it may appeal to the authority for the information to remain excluded from the register on the ground that it is still commercially confidential and the authority shall determine whether or not that is the case.

(7) Paragraphs (3) and (4) shall apply in relation to a determination under paragraph (6) as they apply in relation to a determination under paragraph (2).

(8) Information is, for the purposes of any determination under this Article, commercially confidential, in relation to any individual or person, if its being contained in the register would prejudice to an unreasonable degree the commercial interests of that individual or person.

(9) For the purposes of paragraph (8), there shall be disregarded any prejudice to the commercial interests of any individual or person so far as relating only to the value of the contaminated land in question or otherwise to the ownership or occupation of that land.