Veolia welcomes common sense disclosure ruling

Veolia Environmental Services has welcomed the Court of Appeal's “common sense judgement” to block further public disclosure of commercial information relating to its £850 million waste PFI contract with Nottinghamshire county council.

However, waste campaigner Shlomo Dowen and Friends of the Earth hailed Friday's (October 29) verdict as a “victory for freedom of information” despite expressing disappointment that a request for additional information would not be granted on commercial confidentially grounds.

Mr Dowen had originally received the right to see commercial contract information relating to Nottinghamshire county council's 26-year waste management deal with Veolia in a High Court case in October 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story). This decision was subsequently appealed by Veolia.

In the latest development, Lord Justice Rix ruled last week that, while Mr Dowen would be allowed to retain contract information issued to him in the wake of the High Court ruling, there would be no further release of contractual information on the grounds of commercial confidentiality (see letsrecycle.com story).

Commenting on the appeal verdict, Steve Mitchell, managing director of Veolia Environmental Services Nottinghamshire, said: “We welcome the ruling as we have always believed it was wrong to make commercially sensitive material available to our direct competitors as this could potentially have an adverse effect on the benchmarking process and drive up the cost to the taxpayer.”

Mr Mitchell added that Veolia was open to make information available to the general public “that is of genuine interest to the local taxpayer”, as he said this would allow the waste management to demonstrate value-for-money from its operations.

“Great success”

Also responding to the Court of Appeal verdict, Shlomo Dowen, who was represented by lawyers from Friends of the Earth rights and justice centre and Timothy-Pitt QC at the Appeal, claimed that the information garnered from the original High Court case had been a “great success”.

Mr Dowen said: “We have used this information to help District Auditor's investigations, for planning objections, and in public inquiries with great success. Such information is an antidote to the industry's propaganda. This decision will be celebrated again by campaigners throughout the UK.”

This view was supported by Friends of the Earth lawyer acting on behalf of Mr Dowen, Laura Gyte, said: “The Court of Appeal have confirmed the victory in this case for freedom of information and the residents of Nottinghamshire.”

However, Friends of the Earth voiced disquiet at the ruling preventing further disclosure. Ms Gyte said: “We are disappointed that the Court of Appeal implied a qualification for commercial confidentiality – in our view this is a matter for Parliament to decide upon – but it is important that even where commercial confidentiality is claimed, the audit laws mean that public authorities must still disclose the information where it is in the public interest to do so.”