Information governance

Guidance on managing information in schools and settings.

Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs)

Under EIRs, any person has a legal right to ask for access to environmental information held by schools and settings.

EIR requests

EIR requests can be made in any of the following formats:

  • electronically
  • in writing
  • verbally

You must respond to an EIR request within 20 working days. If the request is complex or there are many requests from the same person you can use another 20 days.

If it’s not clear what is being requested, you must ask the requester as soon as possible within the 20-day timescale. The ICO provide:

EIR complaints

Requesters can complain about responses and, if they’re not happy with the complaint response, they can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

EIR guidance

For guidance and more information about FOI, managing requests and complaints visit the ICO Guide to the Environmental Information Regulations web pages.

To find out how to contact the ICO for help and support including its helpline or live chat, visit the ICO How You Can Contact Us web page.

Contact us

We can provide support through our Information Governance Support (IGGS) service.

For more information or if you have any questions about data protection visit our IGS website or contact:

Telephone: 0333 032 2970

Email: igs@essex.gov.uk