Asked by: Baroness Walmsley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the proposed establishment of the National Underground Asset Register, what plans they have to put a legal obligation on housebuilders, commercial developers, and individual property owners to register all deep underground obstructions, such as deep foundations, energy piles, and other potential underground obstructions.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The National Underground Asset Register is a digital map of underground pipes and cables that is primarily aimed to support safe digging through the creation of a secure, auditable, trusted and sustainable platform that will support greater data sharing of underground assets such as water and gas pipes and electricity cables.
There are no plans to introduce a legal obligation to require housebuilders, commercial developers and individual property owners to register all deep underground obstructions.
Asked by: Baroness Walmsley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they define "commercial confidentiality" and "exceptional circumstances" in relation to restrictions on FOI requests relating to private companies that provide public services.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
Requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 are considered on a case by case basis. Section 43 of the Act sets out the circumstances in which information is exempt from disclosure on grounds of commercial interests.