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Correspondence relating to Hinkley B Gas plant incident July 2009

Date released
19 January 2022
Request number

202111033

Release of information under
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)

Information requested

I would like to make a freedom of information requests for all correspondence, emails, reports and letters between the ONR and EDF regarding the incident.

In addition any correspondence between the ONR and any government Departments

The incident was on 16.7.2009.

All documents emails, reports, conversations and reference documents.

Information released

When we wrote to you on 17 December 2021 we confirmed that under Section 1 of the FOIA, we held the information relevant to your request. The extension of time was needed for the consideration of the public interest test in disclosing the information in relation to the following qualified exemptions of the FOIA:

On reflection, we have identified that these exemptions are not engaged therefore please find attached 10 documents in scope of your request. We apologise for any inconvenience this delay caused.

Some information has been removed as it contains personal data. This includes names, job titles, and contact details. The personal data has been withheld using the exemption Section 40(2) of the FOIA. In particular, release of the information would breach principle (a) of GDPR (lawfulness, fairness and transparency) on the grounds that there is no lawful basis to process this data. In addition, releasing this personal data would also breach principle (b) of GDPR (purpose limitation) as the data was provided for the purposes of internal circulation or to assist with the subsequent investigation after the event.

Furthermore, personal information relating to the health of third parties has also been removed. This type of information is more sensitive and is known as “Special Category Personal Data”. There are stronger legal protections against release of Special Category Personal Data which requires an Article 9 GDPR Condition for Processing. In our assessment, none of the grounds permitting the process of that data appears relevant here.

Please note that we only hold documents in line with our Business Classification Scheme and Disposal Schedule, some documents we may have previously held are no longer available as they have been destroyed.

Exemptions applied

Section 40(2)

PIT (Public Interest Test) if applicable

N/A