Southern Water Services Limited

The complainant has requested information about an incident where bio beads were accidently released from a wastewater treatment site. Southern Water Services Ltd (‘Southern Water’) provided responses to parts one and two of the request and relied on regulation 12(4)(e) of the EIR (internal communications), regulation 12(5)(b) of the EIR (course of justice) and regulation 12(4)(b) of the EIR (manifestly unreasonable) to withhold the internal correspondence requested in part three. The Commissioner’s decision is that Southern Water was entitled to rely on regulation 12(4)(e) of the EIR to withhold the internal correspondence. The Commissioner does not require further steps.