Guidance

Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) Processing Requests for Information

Published 12 June 2026

1. Introduction

This Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) forms part of the Information Governance Section of the Nuclear Waste Services Integrated Management System (IMS), as detailed in Organisational Manual (OM) NWSOM 7 Information Security and Governance OM.

2. Purpose / Scope

This procedure defines how requests for information must be handled to ensure Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) complies with the requirements and legal obligations of the: 

• Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FoIA”) 

• Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (“EIR”) 

NWS seeks to respond positively to all requests for information, whether made through the formal mechanisms of FoIA or the EIR or as more general enquiries. The presumption is in favour of disclosure. Requests for information can offer opportunities for further engagement and to better understand public and stakeholder interests and concerns. In addition to timely formal response to information requests, NWS may also invite discussion with those requesting information. 

This procedure provides guidelines on how to manage requests for information under the above legislation. It applies to all requests for information received from any external organisation or individual, other than those received during the normal course of business, such as from suppliers, customers, the NDA and its subsidiaries and site licence companies. If a day-to-day request comes through a general route the request should be directed to the relevant function or individual that manages the relationship with that organisation.

3. Terms and Definitions

Term	Definition
CRM	Customer Relations Management database. This is the software used to record and manage all of NWS’ interactions with stakeholders including local communities and members of the public.
Data Protection Act	Data Protection Act 2018. UK law on the processing of data on identifiable living people. With the UK GDPR, it is the legislation that governs the protection of personal data in the UK.
EIR	Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (“EIR”). The EIR provides public access to environmental information held by public authorities. The Regulations do this in two ways: public authorities must make environmental information available proactively; and members of the public are entitled to request environmental information from public authorities. (See Annex 1 for EIR exemptions)
FoIA	Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FoIA”). The FoIA makes provision for the disclosure of information held by public authorities or by persons providing services for them. The FoIA grants a general right of access to information held by public authorities within certain parameters and allowing for a series of exemptions to be applied where appropriate, as set out in the FoIA (see Annex 2)
Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”)	The ICO is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals. It covers various legislation including FoIA, EIR, the Data Protection Act and the UK GDPR.
Qualified Person	The individual designated by government to approve the use of the Section 36 exemption of the FoIA (see Annex 2)
Redaction	The preparation for publication of a document, involving the editing or removal of certain information.
UK GDPR	The UK General Data Protection Regulation. UK law on the processing of data on identifiable living people. With the Data Protection Act 2018, it is the legislation that governs the protection of personal data in the UK.

4. Roles and Responsibilities

Outlined below are the roles within the organisation that have a direct involvement in activities identified within this Standard Operating Procedure:

Information Governance team	Responsible for managing NWS compliance with the EIR and FoIA. Check the FoIA inbox on a regular basis; log requests for information and responses to the requests on CRM; work with Information Asset Owners to develop responses to requests for information in a timely manner; and provide advice on the application of the FOI Act and EIR exemptions.
Information Asset Owners (“IAOs”)	Responsible for providing information requested and advising on release of information that they are responsible for. Consulted on responses to requests for information.
Minister of State (Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero)	Responsible for approving the application of the Section 36 exemption of FoIA (see Annex 2) as the designated Qualified Person on behalf of NWS.
Head of Legal / Legal Function	Consulted and provides support to the process, in particular on the application of the Public Interest Test, any exemptions and the preparation of any non-standard responses.
Directors	Responsible for ensuring that their directorates are fully compliant with this procedure and provide support to the process. Responsible for approving responses related to information held within their directorate.
NWS Employees	Responsible for ensuring requests for information are processed appropriately in line with this procedure. If an employee’s assistance is required to answer a request they must fully cooperate with the Information Governance team within the timescales set.

5. Recognising Requests

Many of the enquiries received by NWS will fall within the scope of routine business enquiries and should be handled as such. However, it is important that requests that fall within the scope of the EIR and FoIA are recognised and handled in line with this procedure. This requires recipients of the request to recognise what constitutes an EIR or FoIA request. 

The key distinctions between a valid request and everyday business enquiries are: 

• they require some investigation to produce an answer; 

• the information requested is not in the public domain; 

• NWS would be the only source of this information; and/or 

• NWS does not currently publish the information requested or intend to do so in the future. 

PLEASE NOTE: It is a criminal offence to destroy information once an FOI or EIR request has been made for it.

5.1 Valid FoIA requests

To be valid under the FoIA, the request must: 

• be in writing, by letter or email. Requests can also be made via the web or social media networking sites such as Facebook; 

• include an address for correspondence; and 

• adequately describe the information required. If the description is not adequate, then the IG team should contact the applicant and ask them to provide more information or clarification

5.2 Valid EIR requests

To be valid under the EIR, the request: 

• can be received verbally or in writing; 

• relate specifically to the elements of the environment, e.g. soil, air, water, land; or 

• relate to factors that affect the elements of the environment, e.g. emissions, discharges, energy, noise, radiation or waste.

5.3 Invalid requests

Applicants do not need to be aware of their rights under the EIR or FoIA. NWS is obliged by the EIR and the FoIA to inform applicants of their rights and to assist them in making valid requests.  NWS must also have consideration for disability discrimination legislation and assist anyone with a disability to make their request valid e.g. by offering to write down a request and send it to them for verification.

What would constitute an invalid request:

• Requests for information which do not meet the criteria set out above do not have to be handled in line with this procedure, but NWS does need to ensure that it has satisfied its duty to “assist and advise” applicants to make “invalid requests” valid if possible. 

• Information reasonably accessible by other means – is exempt under FoIA. Applicants should be redirected to suitable sources of this information. 

• Information which NWS has a stated an intention to publish at a future date is exempt under FoIA, however the exemption is subject to a public interest test. Applicants should be informed when and how they may obtain this information. 

• Requests for personal information – if someone asks to see all the information NWS holds about them, this falls under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. The applicant will need to submit what is known as a “subject access request” to the Data Protection Officer. Their identity will need to be checked before NWS provides any information.  

• Vexatious requests – if the same applicant asks for the same or very closely related information within a short space of time, this would be considered a vexatious request. These requests will require a refusal notice.

5.4 Requests from the media

The Communications team must be sighted on FoIA and EIR requests from the media as soon as possible.

5.5 Recording requests

All requests must be forwarded to the FOI mailbox: FOIrequest@nuclearwasteservices.uk on receipt. This will ensure that they are automatically recorded on CRM and given a reference number.

5.6 Handling requests

FoIA and EIR requests must, with certain exemptions, be answered within 20 working days from receipt. However, the organisation is required to respond as ‘promptly’ as practicably possible.  

If you are in any doubt as to whether a request falls within FoIA or EIR regimes, contact the Information Governance or Legal teams for advice.

6. Method

Process Steps are to be performed by people holding the Primary Responsible Role as identified in each individual Process Step. In exceptional circumstances (e.g. covering for annual leave or sickness), Process Steps can be performed by other role holders with prior line management approval.

7. Answering requests

The overall process for handling information requests will be followed by the Information Governance team and includes review and approval. 

If the Information Governance team request assistance from any member of staff, they must cooperate fully and in a timely manner as NWS is legally obliged to meet the timescale deadlines set out in the EIR and the FoIA. 

The following are the key steps in the process: 

• Aim to acknowledge receipt of all FoIA /EIR requests to the applicant within 2 working days of receipt. If no email address is provided the IG team should send an acknowledgement letter.  

• If it is not clear what the applicant wants, the IG team must contact them to seek clarification of what is required. While waiting for a response the 20-day count stops. 

• The IG team will send the request for information to the relevant Information Asset Owner (IAO) as soon as possible after receipt of the request. The IAO will advise whether NWS holds the information requested. 

• If the information is held, the IG team will consider if any exemptions apply to all or part of the information and if necessary, apply the public interest test mindful of the context set out in the purpose and scope section. 

• If part of the information is to be disclosed and part withheld, the IG team will ensure that the exempt information is permanently redacted from the document to be disclosed. 

• Whenever possible, NWS will supply the information for free. However, NWS reserves the right to charge in line with FoIA appropriate limit and fees regulations (see Annex 3 ‘Estimating costs’). 

• If the information would incur a charge, the IG team will work with the IAO to draft a response to the request after the relevant payment has been received.  

• If material relates to “risk” or “security” matters, even if sensitivities are not initially identified the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and/or Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO) must also be consulted (as appropriate) before release. 

• The IG team will ensure that a response to a request is drafted, approved and returned to the applicant within the 20-day limit. 

• If similar information has been requested within the previous 3 months or a similar response has been previously approved, the IG team will issue that response and will only require further approval if the information has changed in the interim period. 

• All other responses to requests for information will be reviewed and approved by the appropriate Director who would be responsible for the information requested with input from Legal, as required. 

If the enquiry cannot be responded to within the 20-day limit, the IG team will write to the applicant explaining why this is not possible and provide an estimated date for the response. Under the legislation, extensions can only be applied when: 

• FoIA – a qualified exemption applies to the information and additional time is needed to consider the public interest test; or 

• EIR – the request is complex and voluminous. 

If the above applies, the deadline can be extended by a further 20 working days. Applicants must be informed within the original 20-day deadline and ideally provided with estimated completion dates, for example “We hope to be in a position to provide a final response by …”.

7.1 Supplying Information

Refer to Annex 3 ‘Guidance on information discovery for the Information Governance team’. 

If no fee is to be charged (see Annex 3) and no exemptions apply (see Annexes 1 and 2) the information must be supplied to the applicant. 

If the applicant has stated a format preference, NWS is required to comply with this as far as practicably possible, for example if it is held in that format. If it is not possible, the information can be supplied in another, suitable format with an explanation to the applicant about why it was not possible to comply with their preference.

7.2 Redaction

Redaction is the separation of disclosable from non-disclosable information by blocking out individual words, sentences or paragraphs or the removal of whole pages or sections prior to the release of the document. It can be used to remove information which is out of scope of the request or would be exempt from disclosure under FoIA or EIR. 

A copy of the redacted information must be kept in the case file as it may be required for an internal review or an ICO complaint.

7.3 Completing the request

After the applicant has been supplied with the information requested or informed of NWS’ decision, the case must be closed on CRM. This must be done as soon as the work is complete to stop the 20-working day clock.

7.4 Documenting requests

The IG team record external correspondence with the applicant related to FoIA and EIR requests on CRM. A copy of the requested information, including any information that has been withheld, should be stored in a case file in the IG SharePoint FOI folder into which copies of all relevant information supplied or withheld and copies of internal correspondence related to the request must be saved.

7.5 Review and monitoring

The Information Governance Specialist will monitor performance and ensure requests, wherever possible, are dealt with within 20 working days from receipt.

8. Records

Reference	Title	Retention Period	Retention Trigger	Med	Record Location	National Archive Required? Yes / No	IAO	Record Holder (post)	Record Retention Schedule (RRS) Ref	Compliance
N/A	Request and response issued to applicant	2 years	Date of response	Electronic	CRM	No	CISO	IG Specialist	510	Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information Regulations
N/A	Case file associated with the request stored in an FOI response sub-folder	2 years	Date of response	Electronic	FOI	No	CISO	IG Specialist	510	Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information Regulations

9. Relevant Compliance

UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) 

Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) 

Environmental Information Regulations 2004 

Freedom of Information Act 2000 

FoIA and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 (SI 2004 no.3244)

10. Abbreviations

IMS	Integrated Waste Management
NWS	Nuclear Waste Services
SOP	Standard Operating Procedure
FoIA	Freedom of Information Act
EIR	Environmental Information Regulations
ICO	Information Commissioner’s Office
IG	Information Governance
CRM	Customer Relationship Management platform (Salesforce)
SIRO	Senior Information Risk Owner
CISO	Chief Information Security Officer
IGKM	Information Governance and Knowledge Management

11. Annexes

• Annex 1 – Exceptions under the EIR 

• Annex 2 – Exemptions under the FoIA 

• Annex 3 – Guidance on information discovery for the Information Governance team

Annex 1 - Exceptions Under the EIR Exceptions to the duty to disclose environmental information

Regulation no.	Description of exception
12 (3)	Information requested includes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject, the personal data shall not be disclosed otherwise than in accordance with regulation 13.
12 (4) (a)	The public authority doesn’t hold the information.
12 (4) (b)	The request for information is manifestly unreasonable.
12 (4) (c)	The request for information is formulated in too general a manner and the public authority has complied with regulation 9.
12 (4) (d)	The request relates to material which is still in the course of completion, to unfinished documents or to incomplete data.
12 (4) (e)	The request involves the disclosure of internal communications (includes communications between government departments).
12 (5) (a)	Adversely affect international relations, defence, national security or public safety.
12 (5) (b)	Adversely affect the course of justice, the ability of a person to receive a fair trial or the ability of a public authority to conduct an inquiry of a criminal or disciplinary nature.
12 (5) (c)	Adversely affect intellectual property rights.
*12 (5) (d)	Adversely affect the confidentiality of the proceedings of that or any other public authority where such confidentiality is provided by law.
12 (5) (e)	Adversely affect the confidentiality of commercial or industrial information where such confidentiality is provided by law to protect a legitimate economic interest.
12 (5) (f)	Adversely affect the interests of the person who provided the information.
*12 (5) (g)	Adversely affect the protection of the environment to which the information relates.

To the extent that the environmental information to be disclosed relates to information on emissions, a public authority shall not be entitled to refuse to disclose that information under an exemption referred to in paragraphs (5)(d) to (g).

Annex 2 - Exemptions Under the FOI Act Detailed guidance on exemptions and how they should be applied can be found in the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), FOIA “Awareness Guidance” series (available from the ICO website). Please also refer to the Freedom of Information Act 2000, part II.

Exemptions where the public interest test applies (qualified exemptions)

When a public authority considers that the public interest in withholding the information requested outweighs the public interest in releasing it, the authority must inform the applicant of its reasons, unless to do so would mean releasing the exempt information.

FOI Act Section	Information covered by the exemption
Section 22	Information intended for future publication – A stated intent to publish must be made in advance of a request being received.
Section 22a	Research information – while the programme is continuing and where there is an intention to publish a report of the research.
Section 24	National security (other than information supplied by or relating to named security organisations, where the duty to consider disclosure in the public interest does not arise).
Section 26	Defence.
Section 27	International relations.
Section 28	Relations within the United Kingdom.
Section 29	The economy.
Section 30	Investigations and proceedings conducted by public authorities.
Section 31	Law enforcement.
Section 33	Audit functions – applies to authorities who are responsible for auditing other public authorities.
Section 35	Formulation of government policy.
Section 36	Prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs (except information held by the House of Commons or the House of Lords).
Section 37	Communications with His Majesty the King.
Section 38	Health and Safety – information is exempt if its disclosure would be ‘likely’ to endanger the health or safety of any individual.
Section 39	Environmental information as this can be accessed through the Environmental Information Regulations.
Section 42	Legal professional privilege.
Section 43	Commercial interests – information is exempt if it constitutes a ‘trade secret’. Information is exempt if disclosure would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of any person.

Exemptions where the public interest test does not apply (absolute exemptions)

Section of the FOI Act	Information covered by the exemption
Section 21	Information accessible to an applicant by other means.
Section 23	Information supplied by, or relating to, bodies dealing with security matters.
Section 32	Court records.
Section 34	Parliamentary privilege (a certificate signed by the Speaker of the House, in respect of the House of Commons, or by the Clerk of the Parliament in respect of the House of Lords, is conclusive proof that the exemption is justified.)
Section 40	Personal information – People cannot access personal data about themselves under the Freedom of Information Act as there is already access to such information under the Data Protection Act 2018. Personal data about individuals cannot be released under FOI if to do so would breach the Data Protection Act.
Section 41	Information provided in confidence – This applies to information supplied to the authority by any other person, the disclosure of which would constitute an actionable breach of confidence.
Section 44	Prohibitions on disclosure where a disclosure is prohibited by an enactment or would constitute contempt of court.

Annex 3 - Guidance on Information Discovery for the Information Governance team The FoIA and the EIR require NWS to supply recorded information ‘held’ by the organisation. When a request is received NWS must first discover what relevant information is held. NWS does not have to ‘generate’ information in response to a request e.g. carry out statistical analyses or generate one off reports. However, if the information can be retrieved by running a straightforward database search or by carrying out simple calculations, then this should be undertaken. 

The Information Governance team may require NWS employees to assist in searching for information. Some requests may require the retrieval of emails, correspondence or documents stored on a computer or laptop. If a request is made which requires this type of search NWS employees must comply.

If no relevant information is found, NWS must respond to the applicant and inform them that NWS does not hold the requested information. A formal notification will be sent to the applicant by the Information Governance team. 

Third party consultation

If the information requested originates from or relates to a third party that holds information on behalf of NWS, such as a contractor, then that party must be consulted before release. They should be contacted and informed that a request has been made and what information it relates to. They should be given an opportunity to comment/advise if in their view the information should be released. Although the views of a third party will be taken into account when making a decision about applying exemptions, NWS reserves the right to apply exemptions as it sees fit in accordance with FoIA and EIR. 

Considering exemptions 

The FoIA and EIR give everyone the right to request information held by public authorities, however they do set out a number of exemptions to this right (a full list is provided in Annexes 1 and 2).

Protectively marked information is not automatically exempt. Only information which falls within an EIR or FoIA exemption category can be withheld.  

Refusing requests

Any exemption must be applied in line with Section 17 of the FoIA and Regulation 14 of the EIR within the 20 working day time limit.  

Decisions relating to the application of exemptions and the Public Interest Test will be made by the Information Governance Specialist taking into account input from, as appropriate: 

• the Information Asset Owner (or Director) and the department from which the information originates;  

• the NWS Senior Legal Counsel; and 

• Any third party who owns the information requested. 

If a FoIA Section 36 (s.36) (see Annex 2) exemption applies, then agreement must be sought from the NWS’ designated ‘Qualified Person’ (currently the Minister of State (Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero)) and the Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO) should be notified. If s.36 is being considered, the ICO s.36 form should be used to record deliberations.

If the exemption requires a public interest test (see Annexes 1 and 2) it must be carried out where possible within the 20-day deadline. If the request falls under FoIA and consideration of the public interest test is likely to take longer than 20 working days the applicant should be notified and given a date by which NWS expects to make a decision. The response must not exceed 40 days in total from receipt of a request. 

Details of the considerations which formed part of the public interest test should be recorded. All refusals must be made by the Information Governance team, by sending an appropriate refusal notice to the applicant. This notice must take into account the requirements of the exemptions being applied and should be accompanied by any information which is not exempt. 

Refusal notices must state that any complaints should be directed to the Information Governance team in the first instance. If a complaint is received, then procedure NWSSOP 07.02.05 Internal Review of Information Requests should be followed to investigate the complaint. The refusal notice should inform the applicant of their right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office if they are not satisfied with NWS’ internal review of their complaint.

Estimating costs 

Whenever possible NWS will supply information free of charge. NWS is not obliged to comply with an FOI request if the cost in supplying the information would exceed the limit set out in The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. The fees limit for NWS is £450, which equates to 18 hours of staff time. It should be noted that the Appropriate Limit and Fees Regulations do not apply to EIR requests. However, requests for environmental information which would be particularly voluminous may fall under the exception at Regulation 12(4)(b) of the EIR ‘manifestly unreasonable.’  

When refusing a request under these exemptions, NWS is required to help the applicant to submit a new, more manageable request. 

Where a request will require an extensive and time-consuming search and engage one of the above exemptions, then NWS may wish to charge to provide the information. Any charge must be in line with the Appropriate Limit and Fees Regulations and agreed with the applicant in advance.

If NWS receives multiple requests for information on the same or similar subject within 60 working days of each other from one applicant or from different applicants who appear to be acting in collaboration, NWS may aggregate the time it would take to answer all requests. If the requests exceed the appropriate limit, the requests may be answered collectively and refused.

12. Amendment Table

Issue 0 to Issue 1

Date	Section or paragraph amended	Details of amendment
March 2025	Whole document	New Document this Supersedes:  RSP 26.05 Request for information and  RWPR72 Processing requests for information