Publication - FOI/EIR release

Related inspection, maintenance and correspondence for A823(M)/M90 junction: EIR release

Published: 16 July 2018
Part of: Public sector, Transport

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

FOI reference: FOI/18/01659
Date received: 21 February 2018
Date responded: 13 July 2018

Information requested

The following documents are requested covering the period 24th August 2017 to 24th February 2018 in terms of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002:-

1. Records of inspection for the relevant stretch of road;

2. Maintenance records relating to the relevant stretch of road, including records of independent contractors working on the relevant stretch of road;

3. All correspondence to independent contractors relating to work carried out by them in the relevant area.

4. All correspondence by the local authority to third parties requesting repairs to defects on the relevant stretch of road in which the responsibility to repair the defect belongs to the third party in question;

5. Statement of the Roads Authorities Policy under the Code of Practice for delivering best value in Highway Maintenance 2001 or, alternatively records of the Minutes of Highway Authority of the local authority meetings where maintenance or repair policy has been discussed or decided;

6. Records of complaints about the state of the road at the accident locus; and

7. Records of other accidents which have occurred on the relevant stretch of road.'

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

I have numbered our response for ease of reference;

1. Please see attached Annex A which is the inspection defect report for the A823(M) joining the M90 northbound at junction 2.

2. Please see attached Annex B which details the maintenance of this section of the trunk road network.

3. 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 El Rs. The reason why that exception applies is we have no correspondence relating to independent contractors earring out work by them in the relevant area.

4. We have also applied exception 10(4)(a) of the El Rs to this question. The reason why that exception applies is we have no access to local authority records. However, you may wish to contact Fife Council at who may be able to help you.

5. The Scottish Ministers Requirements set out in the Forth Road Bridge contract are a bespoke set of requirements specific to the management and maintenance of the Scottish Trunk Road Network. The requirements meet or exceed the standards set out in the national codes of practice. The 4th Generation Term Contract for management and maintenance of the Scottish Trunk Road Network can be viewed with the following web link:

https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/35776/fboc.Pdf

6. 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 El Rs. The reason why that exception applies is that there have been no complaints received in relation to this part of the trunk road network.

7. Please refer to Annex C which details incidents on this part of the trunk road network.

Please note that the information provided is based on the current figures available. The following are potential reasons for an accident not appearing on our system:

Transport Scotland only holds accident information which is provided to us by Police Scotland.
Transport Scotland does not hold information relating to damage only accidents (i.e. not involving an injury).
Transport Scotland only holds accident information for the trunk road network.
The accident information Transport Scotland holds is subject to change. E.g. we receive late returns from Police Scotland, who are responsible for recording details of injury accidents.
Annual Scottish accident figures are published by Transport Scotland on a yearly basis and can be found by entering Reported Road Casualties Scotland into your search engine.

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