Transparency after Fish Legal: Private Actors and Access to Environmental Information in the United Kingdom

This article examines the meaning of ‘public authorities’ under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR) since 2015, when it was decided in Fish Legal that private water companies in England and Wales are public authorities for EIR purposes. Whilst that decision was considered a victory for transparency as it now means that private water companies have a legal obligation to provide access to environmental information, this article argues that the tests established in Fish Legal have introduced a high threshold that relatively few other private bodies have met, despite performing what are arguably public functions. As a result, access to environmental information is effectively limited due to the increasing participation of the private sector in delivering public services. Through an examination of the decisions taken since Fish Legal, this article exposes the limitations of the current functional approach to designation and argues that a renewed approach to environmental transparency is needed to ensure that information and participation rights are not diminished by privatisation.