Definition of environmental information
This page provides a definition of 'environmental information'.
For information to relate to the environment, the law says it must relate to one of the following:
a) the state of the elements of the environment, such as air and atmosphere, water, soil, land, landscape and natural sites including wetlands, coastal and marine areas, biological diversity and its components, including genetically modified organisms, and the interaction among these elements;
b) factors, such as substances, energy, noise, radiation or waste, including radioactive waste, emissions, discharges and other releases into the environment, affecting or likely to affect the elements of the environment referred to in a);
c) measures (including administrative measures), such as policies, legislation, plans, programmes, environmental agreements, and activities affecting or likely to affect the elements and factors referred to in a) and b) as well as measures or activities designed to protect those elements;
d) reports on the implementation of environmental legislation;
e) cost benefit and other economic analyses and assumptions used within the framework of measures and activities referred to in d) above;
f) the state of human health and safety, including the contamination of the food chain, where relevant, conditions of human life, cultural sites and built structures in as much as they are or may be affected by the state of the elements of the environment referred to in a) or, through those elements, by any of the matters referred to in b) and c).
The scope of the information that can be made available includes any information about the environment held by the Council's Environmental Protection team whether or not it was obtained as a result of its environmental responsibilities.
It does not include
- non-existent information that could be created by manipulating existing information
- information destroyed in accordance with established office procedures.
Last updated : 01/06/2009
