An update on the Supreme Court's decision in Office of Communications v The Information Commissioner [2010] UKSC 3, 27 January 2010, in which it referred the question of whether the interests served by exceptions to the duty to disclose information requested under Directive 2003/4/EC (implemented in the UK by the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (SI 2004 No. 3391)) must be considered separately or whether they can be combined and then weighed against the public interest in disclosure, to the ECJ.

Note: The Advocate General gave her opinion on 10 March 2011 (see Legal update, Advocate General's opinion on environmental information disclosure exceptions). On 28 July 2011, the ECJ ruled on the reference in this case (see Legal update, ECJ rules on environmental information disclosure exceptions). (See details of PLC IPIT & Communications' policy on annotating case reports.)