Access To Information

You have a right to know and use what you know!

The right to information about the state of environmental protection is guaranteed by the Polish Constitution and applies to any natural or legal person, regardless of nationality, residence or registered office.

Government administration and local government authorities at all levels, as well as other entities, are obliged to share information on the environment if they have been created to carry out public tasks relating to the environment and its protection.

Detailed regulations for sharing information about the environment and its protection are included in the Act of 3 October 2008 on providing information on the environment and environment protection, public participation in environmental protection and on the environmental impact assessment [PL].

The following information that are held or are intended to be held by an administrative authority are, inter alia, subject to be provided:

• on state of elements of the environment and the interaction between these elements,
• on emissions and pollution impacting or likely to impact the environment,
• on measures and actions impacting or likely to impact individual elements of the environment or its protection and the reports in this regard,
• on health, safety and living conditions of people in terms of the impact on the state of the environment and emissions,
• on condition of cultural and construction objects in terms of the impact on the state of the environment and emissions.

Meta-information about documents containing information about the environment and its protection are available via publicly available registers of data held by public administration authorities. The Centre provides a tool to enable authorities to keep a publicly available register online.

In addition, on the Public Information Bulletin, documents and available databases are provided for each public administration office that is mentioned in Art. 25 of the Act of 3 October 2008 on providing information on the environment and environment protection, public participation in environmental protection and on environmental impact assessment [PL].

On the websites of administrative entities, other information about the environment not covered by the obligation for publication may also be included.

Note:
Other information held by public administration offices - which does not constitute environmental information to be provided - under the Act of 6 September 2001 on access to public information [PL].