The Environmental Information Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1993

Obligation to make environmental information available

4.—(1) Subject to the following provisions of these regulations, a relevant person who holds any information to which these regulations apply shall make that information available to every person who requests it.

(2) It shall be the duty of every relevant person who holds information to which these regulations apply to make such arrangements for giving effect to paragraph (1) as to secure—

(a) that every request made for the purpose of that paragraph is responded to as soon as possible;

(b) that such a request is responded to within two months of the request being made; and

(c) that, where the response to such a request contains a refusal to make information available, the refusal is in writing and specifies the reasons for the refusal.

(3) Arrangements made by a relevant person for giving effect to paragraph (1) may include provision entitling that person to refuse a request for information in cases where a request is manifestly unreasonable or is formulated in too general a manner.

(4) The arrangements made by a relevant person for giving effect to paragraph (1) may—

(a) include provision for the imposition of a charge on any person in respect of the costs reasonably attributable to the supply of information to that person in pursuance of that paragraph; and

(b) make the supply of any information in pursuance of that paragraph conditional on the payment of such a charge.

(5) The obligation of a relevant person to make information available in pursuance of paragraph (1) shall not require him to make it available except in such form, and at such times and places, as may be reasonable.

(6) Without prejudice to any remedies available apart from by virtue of this paragraph in respect of any failure by a relevant person to comply with the requirements of these regulations, the obligation of such a person to make information available in pursuance of paragraph (1) shall be a duty owed to the person who has requested the information.

(7) Subject to regulation 5, where any statutory provision or rule of law imposes any restriction or prohibition on the disclosure of information by any person, that restriction or prohibition shall not apply to any disclosure of information in pursuance of these regulations.