First-tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber)

FT/EA/2024/0207 - [2025] UKFTT 01276 (GRC)

Fecha: 31-Oct-2025

Preliminary matters

Preliminary matters

In this decision, we use the following terms to denote the meanings shown:

Appellant:	Alan Smith.
Authority:	Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority.
Cobalt Energy:	Cobalt Energy Limited.
Commissioner:	The Information Commissioner (the Respondent).
Decision Notice:	The Decision Notice of the Commissioner dated 23 April 2024, reference IC-280274-P1N7, relating to the Request.
Duty to Disclose:	The duty of a public authority to make available on request any environmental information which it holds, pursuant to regulation 5(1) (set out in paragraph 31).
EIRs:	The Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
Fire:	As defined in paragraph 7.
FOIA:	The Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Public Interest Test:	The test, pursuant to pursuant to regulation 12(1)(b) (set out in paragraph 38), as to whether, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exception to the Duty to Disclose outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
Request:	The request for information made to the Authority by the Appellant dated 11 July 2022, as set out in paragraph 9.
Requested Information:	The information which was requested by way of the Request.
Reports:	Two reports issued by Dunton Environmental Limited within the scope of the Request.
Site:	The battery energy storage site where the Fire occurred.
Withheld Information:	The information within the scope of the Request which was withheld by the Authority (excluding the Reports) and which was included in the closed bundle.

Unless the context otherwise requires (or as otherwise expressly stated), references in this decision:

to numbered paragraphs are references to paragraphs of this decision so numbered;

to a regulation are references to the applicable regulation of the EIRs;

to a section are references to the applicable section of FOIA; and

to the Commissioner’s “investigation” mean the Commissioner’s investigation, for the purposes of section 50, of the Appellant’s complaint relating to the Authority’s response to the Request.