A major blunder by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency has seen the release of confidential business and trading information in the waste and recycling sector released to third parties, writes Steve Eminton.
SEPA has offered “unreserved” apologies to Scottish recyclers who export material in the wake of what is seen as a serious breach of commercial confidentiality.
The release of the data, last month, came in the wake of confidentiality concerns expressed by paper and metals recyclers about the legal requirement to give information about where material is sourced from and the other stages of chain, to be allowed to export the materials.
Competitors
There have been strong concerns within industry that knowledge of where companies get their source material from – such as where they obtain scrap metal or waste paper – could be very useful to competitors. These concerns have also been strengthened by fears that final buyers of material with this knowledge could then go to the beginning of the recycling chain so cutting out merchants or brokers in the process.
Colin Bayes, director of environmental protection and improvement, has written to recyclers north of the border telling them about the “administrative error” which saw SEPA release its “Annex VII” database “inadvertently to two third parties”.
The information provided on the Annex VII forms is required by Article 18 of the Waste Shipment Regulations and is the information which must accompany the waste (recyclables) during shipment.
Deleted
Mr Bayes has told the recycling businesses in the letter that “the two parties in receipt of the database have confirmed that they have deleted copies and they fully understand that they have no right to the data sets or to make use of the information it contains. Formal confidentiality agreements are being signed to confirm these undertakings.
“SEPA is very grateful for the responsible action of the two companies that received the information.”
The director goes on to “fully and unreservedly apologise” to businesses on the list and says that additional controls have been put in place along with a full internal investigation and “potential disciplinary action”.
Companies who are on the database have not been told who the third parties are but have been offered the opportunity by Mr Bayes to see the data held on their own businesses.
Asked whether the individuals involved in the leak have been disciplined, Mr Bayes said today, (18 April 2008), that : “It would be inappropriate to comment whilst the disciplinary investigation is underway, but I can confirm that staff concerned have been moved to other duties pending the outcome of the investigation.”
Awful
Two recycling businesses contacted today by letsrecycle.com described the release of the data as “awful” and “unbelievable”. One added: “This is exactly the sort of thing we have been warning about.”
There is no suggestion that the Environment Agency in England and Wales has released data and it pointed out that it does not actually have the sort of data that was released in Scotland. A statement explaining the export data system for England and Wales, was issued todayby the Agency.
In the statement, the EA noted that it “is responsible for regulating imports and exports of waste from England and Wales. European Union rules require companies arranging exports of clean recyclable 'green list' wastes to complete a form specified in EU legislation 'the Annex VII Form'. The completed form must accompany the waste being exported and the person arranging the export must keep a copy. “
The statement continued: “Companies exporting waste from England and Wales are not required to submit a copy of the Annex VII form to the Environment Agency. Companies exporting waste from Scotland and Northern Ireland are under UK legislation required to send a copy of the completed form to the relevant authorities in those countries (SEPA for Scotland and Department of Environment in Northern Ireland) prior to exporting the waste.
“We are aware of industry's concerns around confidentiality of business sensitive information that must be included on completed Annex VII forms. UK government has raised these concerns with the EU Commission.”
Register for free to comment