Summary/Decision
1. On 28 April 2024, the Complainant requested certain information from the Department for the Environment (the SPA) about a report, “Groundwater Contamination Investigation: an assessment of the impact on water quality of contaminant migration from firefighting activities at Jersey Airport (JHA68) Post 2000.JHA068, CES, June 2000” (the Report) that had been provided to the SPA by [X] (the Request).
2. The SPA wrote to the complainant on 24 May 2024 (the Response) stating that the Report was being withheld (the Withheld Information), citing the exemption at Art.26 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 (the FOI Law). The Complainant did not agree with the Response and requested an internal review later that same day (the IR Request).
3. The SPA responded to the IR Request on 26 June 2024 (the IR Response) and upheld the previous decision that had been made.
4. The Complainant did not agree with the outcome of the Internal Review and issued an appeal to the Information Commissioner (the Commissioner) on 3 July 2024 (the Appeal).
5. The Commissioner’s decision is that the appeal is upheld. The SPA must provide a copy of the Report to the Complainant within 35 days of this Decision Notice, redacted as per version set out in the Confidential Annex (which is not provided to the Complainant as part of this Notice).
