An article*, written by environmental lawyer Professor
Robert Lee, has found that recent legal rulings have ‘transformed processes of
risk governance in land transfer and related forms of transaction to the point
which the restriction of information to commercial providers of information
is…contrary to the public good’.
In Smartsource v Information Commissioner, the Upper
Tribunal ruled that privatised water utility companies are not subject to
requirements of the relevant regulations allowing access to information on the
environment. This ruling has raised serious questions about the obligation
Private companies have to provide public access to environmental information.
Professor Lee notes within the paper that ‘it is the
combination of different datasets that imbues data with meaning therefore it is
in public interest to have access to comprehensive environmental information’.
However, the information received from Public companies is not always
completely accurate. When Professor Lee visited Landmark Information Group’s
offices in Exeter, he discovered that the flow of data between Private and
Public companies is symbiotic, with experts at Landmark checking the accuracy
of data and ensuring a regular flow back to public agencies.
The benefit of sourcing data from a commercial company is
highlighted within the report. Commercial providers rely on special systems to
ensure the integrity of their data – they quality check and clean up the data,
highlighting any errors to the public providers. Crucially, Landmark carries
out a geometric check to verify data. Any anomalies are quickly flagged and are
then corrected manually by Landmark if necessary.
Although there are arguments for the public having access
to data, many consumers have difficulty in interpreting the raw data that are
received from public companies. It is here that commercial companies such as
Landmark really come into their own, by virtue of the fact that they distil the
information into user-friendly reports which are much easier to digest. By
purchasing a report such as Landmark’s Envirosearch Report, users have a single
report containing all relevant data and can quickly and easily establish any
potential risk.
As Professor Lee notes in closing, ‘the free flow of
information supports market forces in generating environmental improvement and
negating environmental risk…environmental information should be treated as a
public good’.
*Environmental Law & Management, published by LawText
Publishing Limited, www.lawtext.com
