Lancashire’s water supply company has been ordered to improve its handling of requests for environmental information, following complaints about a lack of transparency.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent regulator for data protection, information rights law and beyond, has issued a practice recommendation to United Utilities for failing to properly handle requests for important environmental information from the public.      

United Utilities said it is ”committed to being more transparent and making information even more accessible”.

Although they are not subject to freedom of information (FOI) requests, water companies have a legal obligation to make information about the environment available under the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR), both proactively and if requested by the public. 

Following numerous complaints about its lack of transparency, the ICO has ordered United Utilities, to urgently improve its handling of EIR requests.  

The ICO’s investigation found that United Utilities has repeatedly failed to respond to requests for information within the legal timeframe of 20 working days.  

It also said the water company was also refusing requests because it claimed the information asked for was not environmental, for example, saying data relating to the performance of its water treatment works did not fall within the EIR scope because it related to internal workings of equipment.

The ICO has now instructed United Utilities to take a much broader interpretation of environmental information in line with decisions made by the commissioner, and ensure it properly handles legitimate EIR requests.  

The practice recommendation outlines further steps for United Utilities to take to improve its compliance, including proactively publishing information that is frequently requested and training its staff to handle requests appropriately.  

Warren Seddon, director of FOI at the ICO, said: “Any information that would enlighten the public about how United Utilities operates and the impact it has on the environment is, by its very nature, likely environmental – this includes data on sewage spills and the performance of its wastewater treatment works.

“By using such a narrow interpretation of environmental information, United Utilities is deliberately ignoring the bigger picture to avoid their legal obligations to even consider whether to release the information people are legitimately asking for.” 

Earlier this year, the UK Information Commissioner John Edwards wrote to 12 water companies, calling on them to put transparency first to rebuild public confidence in the sector. This followed ongoing concerns about sewage pollution and the lack of information made readily available.  

Mr Seddon added: “Our message to water companies is simple – we expect transparency to be your default position. It is unacceptable to keep people in the dark when they have no choice but to rely on these firms for clean water. By issuing our first practice recommendation under the EIR, we are holding United Utilities accountable for improving how it communicates with the public.   

“I urge all water companies to also take heed of our recommendations and build a culture where people receive timely responses to their requests and relevant information is published proactively. Being as open as possible about your activities will go a long way towards rebuilding public trust.”  

Failure to comply with a practice recommendation may lead to further enforcement action if an organisation is still not complying with the law.  

United Utilities is expected to respond to the ICO by February 2025 to confirm how it has complied with the practice recommendation, as well as publishing its action plan on its website.   

Water companies must release environmental information under the EIR. As the law stands, they are not legally obliged to release non-environmental information under the Freedom of Information Act. 

A United Utilities spokesperson said: “We handle hundreds of environmental information requests (EIRs) every year and, in a handful of cases, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) clarified that the information we were asked to provide did fall under the scope of EIR. 

“We have followed that clarification since we received it several months ago. We are receiving an increasing number and wider scope of EIRs and have recruited additional and dedicated resources to help us deal with these. In the last 12 months, we have issued over 1.5 million lines of data and responded to more than 330 requests.

“We are committed to being more transparent and making information even more accessible and, from November 2024, our website will detail our compliance with our speed of response to EIRs, alongside providing additional areas of open data in the coming months.

“We are now considering the recommendations set out by the ICO’s office and will be responding before its February deadline.”