A landmark challenge in the Court of Appeal 

My name is Patricia O’Hanlon. I am a former Sefton Borough councillor and since 2020  I have been campaigning to get to the bottom of very dangerous, life-threatening practices  by cowboy builders in Liverpool who threaten the health and lives of our community through dangerous handling of asbestos and other very harmful contaminants in building works. 

On 31st January 2020 I was alerted to horrendous dangerous practices at building works at Saville Road, Lydiate.  With residents and colleagues, I gathered extensive evidence including hundreds of photographs, of the very worst asbestos handling you can imagine.  The buildings were being smashed down with the asbestos still in and on them by young workers unqualified to be working with asbestos. They had no masks or protective clothing and were not following any legislation which is in force to keep us all safe. Asbestos debris covered the site which is surrounded by housing on all four sides. Residents’ gardens and their children’s play areas were being exposed to dust and fibres from this unlawful building work.

Residents and their councillors complained to HSE, 3 letters were emailed to HSE’s Chief Executive counter-signed by councillors and residents. HSE allowed this unlawful work to continue and covered up their involvement in these environmental crimes by concealing documents from us and the information rights bodies (Information Commissioner (ICO) and First-tier Tribunal (FTT).  These documents proved the site was very dangerous contrary to the HSE propaganda being fed to complainants of a site being managed appropriately.

In our quest to bring an end to this we submitted an information request to HSE because we could not balance what we were witnessing on this site and what HSE were telling us.  It just did not add up. This was a body in force to keep us safe. We had discovered HSE had issued contravention notices like confetti but had no intention of proceeding to prosecution.  It was to be some 16 months before HSE made an unlawful declaration under the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) only declaring information to deceive us that the site was safe while deliberately concealing and withholding documents that showed a very dangerous site.

Among the deliberately concealed documents were 2 enforcement notices served on a bogus asbestos clearance contractor.  HSE refused to release these important enforcement notices to us  We appealed that decision and after years of battling without any legal assistance against HSE and the Information Commissioner and their team of lawyers, we won a tremendous victory in the Upper Tribunal.

Upper Tribunal Judge Citron held that HSE was required to provide the enforcement notices to us under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (“EIR”). 

The HSE and the ICO are now appealing that judgment to the Court of Appeal. The appeal has been listed for a hearing on 9 June 2026. To win that appeal, we have decided we need the help of lawyers. Leigh Day and information law barrister Pete Lockley have agreed to help us fight this battle. To do so, we need your help. 

There are two grounds of appeal brought by the HSE and the Information Commissioner: 

1) the correct date for applying the public interest balancing test on a request under reg. 5 Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (“EIR”); and 

(2) whether such a request can apply to information that comes into the possession of the public authority after the date of the request, but before the date of its reconsideration of a refusal.

UTJ Citron held that (1) the correct date was that of reconsideration under reg. 11 EIR and (2) that information could be in scope if received after the date of the request. 

We need the Court of Appeal to uphold those findings because they bring within the scope of our information requests to the HSE 2 very important documents which will help us find out what the HSE did or didn’t do about dangerous asbestos in our community. 

The potential difference in the scope of information that a public body will have to disclose in response to EIR requests will be drastically affected by the outcome of this appeal. It has been 3 laypeople against the HSE and ICO up to now – a David and Goliath scenario. With your help we hope to be able to ensure that our victory at the Upper Tribunal is not over turned by the Court of Appeal. 

The final decision by the Court of Appeal will have huge ramifications for public access to environmental information.  If we win, access to environmental information will improve for all and, we hope, we will force the HSE to disclose vital information about what it has done about dangerous asbestos practices in Liverpool and throughout our country.

This is not only a landmark legal challenge in the Court of Appeal but also a fight for every one of us – men, women and children – in our country to be safe from asbestos and other contaminants.  Statutory legislation is in place to protect us all from asbestos and other contaminants but those legally responsible for enforcing these laws are not complying and covering-up.

You can also find a link to other Nationwide examples of this here.