Contractors from Aberdeen Roads Unit in new maintenance: EIR release

FOI reference: FOI/18/01474
Date received: 29 May 2018
Date responded: 13 June 2018

Information requested

A full list of Main Contractors, Consultants/Civil Engineers, Sub-contractors and suppliers involved with your new build and roads maintenance works from your Aberdeen Roads Unit (indicated on your Asset Management Map https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/35770/oc-map.jpg ) over the past 12 months to present.

If sub-contractor/supplier details are not held by yourself in house, can you please request them from principal contractors as these as still covered under Freedom of Information as the principle contractor working on your behalf and is therefore deemed that the information they hold in relation to your works is held on your behalf.

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.

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. Please see below information which is known to Transport Scotland.

We do not hold a list of all sub-contractors, suppliers and consultants involved in AWPR/B-T project nor is it held on our behalf by Aberdeen Roads Limited. Aberdeen Roads Limited is not obligated to provide information which is considered to be commercially sensitive.

With regards to your reference to Health and Safety, the design, build, finance and operate contract ,which includes this work, is being delivered by Aberdeen Roads Limited (Balfour Beatty Investments Ltd, Carillion Private Finance (Transport) Ltd and Galliford Try Investments Ltd), who act as Client under the terms of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (CDM). By way of clarifying Transport Scotland's role, Scottish Ministers have delegated their functions, under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984, to a Contracting Authority (Aberdeen City Council) who act as agent to Scottish Ministers.

Aberdeen Roads Limited's Principal Contractor is its Construction Joint Venture (CJV). On this basis, Transport Scotland is aware of two principal subcontracts Aberdeen Roads Limited holds:

• AWPR Construction Joint Venture comprising Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering and Galliford Try Infrastructure trading as Morrison, for the design and construction of the New Works required under the AWPR/B-T Project; and

• Balfour Beatty Regional Civil Engineering, for operation and maintenance of relevant roads included within the scope of the AWPR/B-T Project.

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