Coral reefs rarely appear in a dredging file by accident. Someone surveys the seabed, someone models the sediment plume, someone drafts conditions to limit the damage, and someone signs the licence. All of that leaves a paper trail. Because dredging permits are issued by public bodies, most of that trail is information you are entitled to ask for. The skill lies in knowing who holds what, how to phrase the request, and what to do when the reply is a polite refusal.
Start with the decision, not the subject
Vague requests fail. "Everything you hold about dredging and reefs" will be batted back as too broad, or answered with a few glossy PDFs that tell you nothing. Anchor the request to a specific decision instead: a named project, a named site, a date range. That gives the officer something they can actually search for.
Before you write anything, jot down four things: the project name, the location, roughly when the application was made or determined, and the regulator. Then set out the documents you want. A useful opening list looks like this:
- the licence application form and any supporting environmental statement
- the officer's assessment report or delegated decision note
- consultation responses from statutory advisers and any reef or conservation bodies
- the licence itself, including every condition attached to it
- post-consent monitoring reports and dredge plume survey results
- correspondence between the regulator and the applicant about reef impacts
Choose the right regime: FOI or environmental information rules
This is the single most useful thing to get right, and plenty of requesters miss it. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, requests for environmental information are handled under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, not the Freedom of Information Act 2000. In Scotland, the equivalents are the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 and the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
The distinction matters because the environmental regime is generally more generous. Its definition of environmental information is broad, covering the state of the environment, the factors affecting it, and the measures and activities that do so. Its definition of a public authority is wider too, reaching some bodies that FOI does not touch. Refusals rest on exceptions rather than exemptions, and most of those exceptions are subject to a public interest test.
You do not need to litigate the point. State that you are requesting information under the Environmental Information Regulations (or the Scottish regulations), and describe what you want. If the authority believes a different regime applies, it should tell you.
Find the body that holds the file
Dredging records are usually scattered. Depending on the project, the paperwork you want may sit with several organisations at once:
- the marine licensing authority — the Marine Management Organisation in England, Natural Resources Wales, Marine Scotland, or the marine licensing team at DAERA in Northern Ireland
- the seabed owner or landlord, frequently the Crown Estate
- the environmental regulator, for linked discharge or waste permits
- the local authority, where harbour works or planning consents are involved
- the harbour authority, if the dredge falls inside port limits
Sending a tailored request to four bodies will produce four different answers, and the gaps between them are often where the interesting material lives.
Draft it like a librarian, not a campaigner
Requests are administrative documents. Write them that way and you will get better results. A reliable structure looks like this:
- Give your name and a contact address — email is fine, but use a working inbox you check.
- Name the regime you are relying on.
- Describe the information, not the argument. Ask what exists, not why something was allowed.
- Set a clear date range for the documents.
- Ask for electronic copies of the original documents, in their original form.
- Offer to narrow the request if it proves too wide to answer.
Two habits make a real difference. First, ask for documents rather than explanations: "please provide the officer's assessment report for application X" will produce a record, whereas "why was this approved?" invites a reply that may not exist in writing. Second, ask for the surrounding scaffolding — file names, a correspondence log, version history, a schedule of the records held. If the substance is withheld, a list of what exists is still evidence, and it makes a later appeal much easier to argue.
Keep a copy of what you sent, note the date, and diarise the deadline. Authorities have 20 working days to respond. Under the environmental regulations, that can be extended to 40 where a request is genuinely voluminous or complex, but they must tell you within the initial 20 days.
What comes back — and what can be withheld
Refusals are rarely bare. The usual grounds are commercial confidentiality, personal data, legal professional privilege, material still in the course of completion, or the protection of the environment itself — for example, precise locations of sensitive reef features. Most of these require the authority to show that the public interest in withholding outweighs the public interest in disclosure.
Do not accept an assertion. Ask which specific exemption or exception is being applied, and ask for the public interest reasoning in writing. If a document is partly withheld, ask for the remainder with the redactions marked and explained.
If they say no: review, then appeal
Start with an internal review. It is quick, free, and occasionally reverses a decision made too hastily. Then, if the answer still does not hold up, complain to the Information Commissioner's Office in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, or to the Scottish Information Commissioner. Beyond that, there is a right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights) in England and Wales; in Scotland, appeals go to the Court of Session on a point of law only.
Keep a dated chronology from the outset — request, acknowledgement, response, review, complaint. A refusal with thin reasoning is itself useful material, and a well-ordered file makes the difference between a complaint that succeeds and one that stalls.
Habits that get results
Ask early and keep asking. Requests filed while a decision is still live can shape what gets recorded, and a short follow-up six months later often catches the monitoring reports that were not written when you first asked. Narrow, repeatable requests beat one heroic thirty-page demand.
Publish what you receive. Reef decisions are frequently made with little public scrutiny, and a document sitting on one campaigner's laptop changes nothing. Share it with local groups, journalists and the relevant conservation body, and cite it by reference number when you respond to the next consultation.
Finally, treat this as a starting point rather than a substitute for advice. Freedom of information law is technical, deadlines matter, and a refusal that affects a live legal challenge needs proper handling. If a dispute escalates, or if you are considering a formal challenge to a permit, speak to a solicitor or an environmental law organisation before you commit to a route.
Photo: 6689062 / Pixabay
