Risks, rights and secrets:public access to information on industrial major hazards

Walker, G. P. (1989) Risks, rights and secrets:public access to information on industrial major hazards. Policy & Politics, 17 (3). pp. 255-271. ISSN 0305-5736

Abstract

Recent developments in public access to information on environmental risk concerns are discussed in relation to the regulation of major hazard industry. Confidentiality has traditionally been part and parcel of the "consensual' approach to risk regulation in the UK. This paper describes and analyses these significant changes in policy, identifies the practical and political basis for the public's right to know about industrial hazards, and assesses the limits to openness now in place. -from Author