FOI_25-088 Utility bills

Date of response: 16 April 2025

We have now considered your request of 25 March 2025 for the following information:

Question 1. I am writing to request, under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, copies of all utility bills for all sites belonging to the University as outlined in the attached site list. I am seeking these documents for the last 2 months?

Our response:

Please see accompanying documents, our ref: FOI_EIR_25-088 Appendix A, FOI_EIR_25-088 Appendix B and FOI_EIR_25-088 Appendix C. Reference numbers and unique identifiers, [including customer / location reference numbers; meter numbers; supply point identifiers; meter point reference numbers; meter point administration numbers] have been redacted from the accompanying documents under s.31(1)(a) Law enforcement for further information please see the below exemption text.

On this occasion it is not possible to provide all of the requested information. In line with your rights under section 1(1)(a) of the Act to be informed whether information is held, we confirm that the University does not hold any recorded information for water and electric bills from 27 February 2025 to the date of your request.

Copies of utility bills contain a mixture of environmental information and non-environmental information. Information relating to reference numbers and unique identifiers is not considered to be environmental information since these have no impact on the environment, therefore we have established this information would fall under the auspices of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Unfortunately, on this occasion, it is not possible to provide all the requested information. The Act contains a number of exemptions that allow public authorities to withhold certain information from release. We have applied the following exemption to this request.

It is our opinion that release of the reference numbers and unique identifiers as described above would be likely, in combination with other information released pursuant to this request, to prejudice the prevention of crime.

Release of any information under the Act represents a disclosure to the world at large; therefore, we must consider the likely impact of information about the University being made publicly available.

As with other higher education institutions, the security of its utility supplies and funding is important to the University. Maintaining the security of our utility services is a significant challenge, and ensuring the appropriate level of security is in place is a major factor contributing towards overall security.

Since this information contains a range of reference numbers and unique identifiers, it is our belief that if we were to disclose this information from the requested utility bills, it would allow for potential bad actor(s) not only to gain access to our utility accounts and meters but freedom to control these. A motivated group or individual could use this information fraudulently to gain access to our utility accounts and meters for their own benefit; either for financial gain or to cause disruption.

Having determined that disclosure of this information would expose the University to a real and significant risk of crime, application of the s.31(1) exemption also requires us to consider the public interest in withholding or disclosing this information.

The factors in favour of disclosure would include:

·                We can find no factors in favour of disclosure as there is no public interest in the reference numbers or unique identifiers for a company's utility accounts since this information is readily seen as confidential by the public.

Factors in favour of withholding the information are largely laid out in the explanation for the use of the exemption above but would include:

·                Protecting the ability of public authorities to protect valuable public assets acquired with public funds.

·                The University is open to the public and any disruption to its utilities because of a crime would not be in the public interest.

After consideration of the above factors, we believe, on balance, that the public interest lies in maintaining the exemption.

Question 2. I am reaching out to inquire about the individual or department responsible for energy management and procurement at the university due to exemptions that have not been applied.

Could you kindly provide me with the relevant contact details, including their name and email address?

 Our response:

Energy management: Craig Mills, Energy Manager, Sustainability@uea.ac.uk

Procurement: Rob Bloomer, Deputy Director of Finance - Procurement and Financial Services, procurement@uea.ac.uk

The staff named above are exercising their right to object to processing contained in article 21 of the General Data Protection Regulation. This right is exercised here with specific reference to not having their contact information used for marketing purposes.