Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004
The Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 provide a right to access environmental information which is held by a designated body. Housing associations have been designated bodies with regard to Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations (EIRs) since 2014.
Environmental Information
The regulations apply a very broad definition to what may be considered to be environmental information. This includes any information that we may hold in written, visual, electronic or any other material form on:
- The state of the elements of the environment - Such as air, water, soil, land and landscape.
- Substances - Energy, noise, radiation or waste, emissions, discharges and other releases into the environment affecting or likely to affect the state of any of the elements of the environment outlined above.
- Administrative measures such as our policies, plans, programmes, environmental agreements and any activities affecting or likely to affect the state of any of the elements outlined above.
- Reports - Cost-benefit and other economic analyses used in our policies, plans, programmes, agreements and other activities.
- Effects of the environment on conditions of human life - Health and safety, contamination of the food chain, floods, cultural sites and the built environment.
How to request Environmental Information
You can make a request for environmental information simply by contacting us. Unlike a Freedom of Information request, your request does not have to be made in writing.
Timescales
We will acknowledge your request, and respond to your request within 20 working days. If your request is quite general we may contact you for further clarification to assist us in providing the information you have asked us for.
We may, in exceptional circumstances, extend our response timescales by up to another 20 working days if your request is particularly large or complex. We will always contact you to inform you if we are not able to respond to your request within 20 working days.
Charges for Environmental Information
Environmental information is provided under the EIRs rather than FOISA. The rules for charging for environmental information are slightly different. We do not charge for the time to determine whether we hold the environmental information requested or deciding whether the information can be released. Charges may be made for locating, retrieving and providing information to you e.g. photocopying and postage.
If we decide to impose a charge, we will issue you with notification of the charge and how it has been calculated.
The information will be provided to you on payment of the charge. If you decide not to proceed with the request there will be no charge to you. Charges are calculated based on the actual cost to Paisley HA of providing the information.
- Photocopying is charged at 10p per A4 sheet for black and white copying, 20p per A4 sheet for colour copying.
- Postage is charged at actual rate for Royal Mail First Class.
- Staff time is calculated at actual cost per staff member hourly salary rate to a maximum of £15 per person per hour.
The first £100 worth of information will be provided to you without charge.
Where information costs between £100 and £600 to provide, you will be asked to pay 10% of the cost. That is, if you were to ask for information that cost us £600 to provide, you would be asked to pay £50, calculated on the basis of a waiver for the first £100 and 10% of the remaining £500. Where it would cost more than £600 to provide the information to you, however, we will ask you to pay the full cost of providing the information, with no waiver for any portion of the cost.