Under the FOI Act to request
Details of the membership, governance, remit and copies of all minutes/agendas for meetings in 2020/2021 for the following committee set up under the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Natural Water Retention Measures Working Group
Note for context:
A NWRM Working Group has been established to advise the Water Framework Directive (WFD) National Technical Implementation Group (NTIG) on proposals for including NWRM as part of a broader suite of mitigation measures that could contribute to the achievement of environmental objectives set out in the second RBMP. The group has met three times in 2019 and includes a broad range of stakeholders reflecting the wide range of land use types covered by NWRM and also the multiple functions and co-benefits that they can provide.
FOI forwarded from Housing to EPA. Due date 30/11/21
Note:
EPA refusal of FOI application was based on ‘intent to publish not later than 6 weeks.’ As the EPA appears not to have published the records within the timeframe, I have asked the OIC for advice on a) does the applicant now need to make a request for Internal Review to the EPA (which adds another 4 weeks to the process), or b) does the applicant now need to Appeal to the OIC, bypassing the Internal Review ?
This is important procedural question, as in theory a public body could add six weeks (or however long) to all FOI processes, and then not publish the records, or publish something different or less than the records requested
Not that I believe that EPA are doing this, but I want to establish if they, or another body could use ‘intent to publish’ as a way to delay FOI/AIE process