Accident on A83: incident report and view call log: FOI release

1. The relevant Accident Book/Log Book entry;

2. Other entries in the book, or other Accident/Log Book relating to accidents or injuries similar to those suffered by our client, on this stretch of the road, (and, if it is contended there are no such entries, please confirm that we may have facilities to inspect all accident books);

3. First Aider or similar report;

4. Foreman/Supervisor Accident/Log Report;

5. All reports, conclusions or recommendations following any enquiry or investigation into the accident;

6. Any photographs relating in any way to the accident;

7. Any records, reports, call logs or documented information relating to any calls of complaint about the road.

8. Any records or reports documenting the Police/Traffic Scotland attending to this incident.’

To which you clarified the location on 10 August;

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.

I have numbered our response for ease of reference;

1, 2 and 3. In response to questions 1 to 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 EIRs.  The reasons why that exception applies is that our operating companies do not record this information. Our accident statistics / details are based on Police Scotland statistics and reports.

4 and 5. Please refer to Annex A which is our operating companies Incident Response Report.

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 EIRs.  The reasons why that exception applies is that we do not hold this information.

7. Please refer to Annex B which is extracts from our call logs and complaints register. An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to all of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

8. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government 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.  The reason why that exception applies is we do not have any records or reports documenting that Police/Traffic Scotland attended this incident.

However, you may wish to contact Police Scotland at foi@scotland.pnn.police.uk  who may be able to help you.