Aberdeen Roads Limited subcontractors on Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route: EIR release

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.


FOI reference: FOI/18/03608  
Date received: 4 December 2018
Date responded: 7 January 2019
 
Information requested
 
Please provide the following answers for the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route;
1. The name of the contractor appointed to install the ITS infrastructure
2. Confirmation of whether said contractor is Sector Scheme Approved
3. Confirmation of the contractual requirement to employ Sector Scheme Approved contractors for ITS infrastructure installation
4. Confirmation of how the procurement of said contractor was undertaken. (I.e is the ITS subcontractor employed by Transport Scotland or by the consortium awarded the AWPR package)
 
Response
 
As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.
This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.
 
1. The name of the contractor appointed to install the ITS infrastructure.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have the information you have requested. We do not hold this information as the project contractor, Aberdeen Roads Limited is responsible for procuring all subcontractors not included in their original tender. Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), Transport Scotland is not required to provide information which it does not have.
This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. While we recognise there may be some public interest in the name of the contractor appointed to install the ITS infrastructure clearly we
cannot provide information which we do not hold.

2. Confirmation of whether said contractor is Sector Scheme Approved.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have the information you have requested. We do not hold this information as the project contractor, Aberdeen Roads Limited is responsible for procuring all subcontractors not included in their original tender. Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), Transport Scotland is not required to provide information which it does not have.
This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. While we recognise there may be some public interest in whether said contractor is Sector Scheme Approved clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

3. Confirmation of the contractual requirement to employ  Sector Scheme Approved contractors for ITS infrastructure installation.
 
I can confirm that there is no contractual requirement specifically to employ Sector Scheme Approved contractors for ITS infrastructure installation.

4. Confirmation of how the procurement of said contractor was undertaken. (I.e is the ITS subcontractor employed by  Transport Scotland or by the consortium awarded the AWPR package)

The construction contract, between Aberdeen Roads Limited (ARL) and the Scottish Ministers, stipulates that all sub-contract opportunities must be advertised on the Public Contracts Scotland web portal. Following this, tender competitions for subcontracts and the evaluation of tender submissions are governed by ARL. Transport Scotland is not party to this process which is a private agreement.
For all activities, there is a rigorous design and check procedure in place prior to commencement of any element of works on site, with check and hold points at relevant stages to ensure that construction of that element is compliant with the contract and meets all required quality standards.
Reasons for not providing information
 
About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses
 

Contact

Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit 
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000 
 
The Scottish Government 
St Andrew's House 
Regent Road 
Edinburgh 
EH1 3DG
 
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