Protect public right to environmental information

by Fish Legal in Leominster, Herefordshire, United Kingdom

Protect public right to environmental information
We did it
On 30th April 2023 we successfully raised £8,372 with 348 supporters in 64 days

The Environmental Information Regulations 2004 are on a list of leglislation that Defra is currently considering scrapping.

by Fish Legal in Leominster, Herefordshire, United Kingdom

 New stretch target


Sewage pollution has become a national scandal.  

In 2015, Fish Legal, a team of dedicated environmental lawyers who use the law to fight water damage, won an important legal case that secured a right for the public to access environmental information directly from privatised water companies in England and Wales.   

It was a hard-won right secured by anglers using the might of Fish Legal that has been critical in exposing water company abuses. Many of the campaigns that have brought sewage pollution to the news have been facilitated by this law change secured by Fish Legal.

But your right is under threat.

What is happening?

The Environmental Information Regulations 2004 are on a list of leglislation that Defra is currently considering scrapping.  

If the regulations and the case law disappear, privatised water companies can go back to polluting under a veil of secrecy.

What are we trying to achieve?

We want to flush out Defra’s plans into the open. To do this, we need your help.

If you want to protect rivers, lakes and coastal waters from pollution, help us stop the Government taking away your right to know exactly how much damage privatised water companies are causing.

It’s the public vs private water companies. We know which side we’re on. Please support us.

"Ask yourself, do you think privatised water companies would give you information about sewage spills if they weren’t required to do so by law?"

- Geoff Hardy, Solicitor at Fish Legal

 "As a club, we fought United Utilities for years over sewage spills from a pipe bridge into the River Eamont.   Yorkshire Fly Fishing Club has nearly 200 members.  Not one of them would want to give up the right to compel United Utilities to tell us what they are putting into and what they are taking out of our rivers.”

- Mike Grimes, Yorkshire Fly Fishers Club

“Being able to get detailed information about water company pollution directly from them is a right that needs to be protected.  Without the law behind us, my angling club would have to rely on the Environment Agency or Severn Trent Water’s goodwill to find out what’s going wrong at Worcester sewage works. We can’t rely on either.”

- Glyn Marshall, Worcester Angling Society

About us:

Fish Legal, based at Leominster, Herefordshire, is a not-for-profit organisation of dedicated lawyers who use the law on behalf of anglers to fight polluters and others who damage or threaten the water environment. Fish Legal is a unique, membership association and everything its lawyers do is funded collectively by members' subscriptions, donations and legacies.

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