Jon Baines, who along with partner Adam Rose, heads up Mishcon's Freedom of Information practice, recently acted for investigative journalist Lucas Amin of the "Democracy for Sale" newsletter. Mr Amin has been seeking clarity on whether the Advanced Research and Information Agency (ARIA) is subject to the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR), and, if it is, to get disclosure of information about research grants.
When ARIA was set up in January 2023, it was excluded from the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). At the time, the Campaign for Freedom of Information said, "It is extraordinary that a body responsible for spending £800 million of public funds… should be freed from the scrutiny that applies to the whole public sector".
However, the EIR, which run in parallel to FOIA, did not expressly exclude ARIA from their ambit, and so Mr Amin requested grant information about its "Scoping our Planet" project, which seeks to provide funding in order to "fill gaps in Earth system measurement to respond confidently to the climate crisis".
Perhaps surprisingly, ARIA did not dispute that it was subject to the EIR, but, extraordinarily, did dispute that the information sought was "environmental". Mishcon de Reya assisted Mr Amin in making a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). During the ICO's investigation, ARIA disclosed much of the requested information to Mr Amin and, in March 2025, the ICO published a formal decision notice which upheld Mr Amin's complaint. The decision notice establishes, for the first time, that ARIA is subject to the EIR, and that it breached the EIR when responding to Mr Amin's request.
Commenting on the case, Jon Baines said: "I think Parliament got it wrong by excluding ARIA from the scope of FOIA, but it's always been clear that they must still be subject to the EIR. It's good that the ICO agrees, and that Lucas has managed to get this mark down in the sand".