United Utilities: 0 | Save Windermere: 1 – UU Withdraws First-Tier Tribunal Appeals
In a monumental victory for Save Windermere, United Utilities (UU) has withdrawn their appeals to the First-Tier Tribunal, where they argued that the Information Commissioner (ICO) was wrong in in their decision telling them to release environmental information to the campaign. They have also subsequently released the environmental data they had been fighting to withhold from the public.
Save Windermere, as a second respondent in this case, worked tirelessly alongside esteemed barristers Nicholas Ostrowski and Samual Glanville, who provided pro-bono work for the campaign. Together, we presented compelling evidence demonstrating why this information should be made public under existing legislation as well as providing evidence to the ICO for their initial decision on this case. An example of the complaints we have been making is provided below in the hope that it will help others in a similar predicament.
This decision marks a significant milestone, achieved through the relentless efforts of Save Windermere over the past few years to hold United Utilities accountable for their lack of transparency. Using established legislation, the campaign has dismantled numerous arguments presented by UU to justify the withholding of data. We have been told that our requests were manifestly unreasonable, that the data did not qualify as environmental information, our requests are too broad, the data sets were incomplete and that its release would perturb the course of justice; the list of excuses went on and on. Today’s announcement demonstrates that UU has yielded to the ICO’s decision to prioritise the overwhelming public interest in this matter over UU’s claims of discretion regarding internal communications. This was one of the few excuses they had left.
Since the decision, United Utilities has communicated readily with the campaign. In addition to releasing the appeal information, they have also provided a significant amount of additional data we had previously requested. We commend this new approach by UU and the leadership decisions that led to this increased transparency about how their activities impact England's largest lake.
While we are encouraged by this outcome, we cannot ignore that it took years of persistent campaigning to achieve it, including countless complaints to the ICO, national media coverage and even the imposition of a special enforcement measure on United Utilities by the ICO – the foundations for which were laid by Save Windermere – making them the first water company in the UK to receive one.
We hope United Utilities will continue this newfound commitment to transparency and make strides in collecting more comprehensive data to fully assess their impact on Windermere. Should the need arise, Save Windermere will not hesitate to fight for transparency again.
A big thanks to Jon Ungoed-Thomas at the Observer for covering this story.
You can download an example of one of our complaints to the ICO below. We hope this supports other campaigners hoping to challenge the water industry over rejections of EIR requests.
