The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued a practice recommendation to United Utilities for failing to properly handle requests for important environmental information from the public.

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 now issued a practice recommendation ordering United Utilities to urgently improve its handling of EIR requests.

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

Following the complaints, the ICO also found that the water company “often refuses to respond to requests because they claim that the information being requested isn’t environmental.”

United Utilities has now been instructed 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.

"Being as open as possible about your activities will go a long way towards rebuilding public trust”

Warren Seddon, ICO Director of Freedom of Information (FOI) and Transparency who is responsible for the ICO’s FOI policy and guidance. 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.

“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.”

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.

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.

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