Publication - FOI/EIR release

M74: road works and schedule of repairs: EIR release

Published: 9 August 2018
Topic: Public sector, Transport

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

FOI reference: FOI/18/01885
Date received: 2 July 2018
Date responded: 8 August 2018

Information requested

1. What work was carried out on the southbound carriageway of the M74 at junction 6 between the second and ninth of March 2018.

2. How many claims for damage to vehicles, including tyres were received relating to the same junction between the second and ninth of March 2018.

3. A schedule of repairs carried out on Junction 6 Southbound between January 1st and May 1st 2018, and how many claims were received for damage to vehicles or tyres in the same period.

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.

I have numbered our response for ease of reference.

1. Please refer to Annex A, which details roadworks undertaken during the time requested. Annex B details works undertaken after a defect was reported. An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of Annex B because it contains personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998. 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.

2. Our Operating Company Scotland Transerv received 1 claim for damage to vehicles.

3. Annex C contains the Inspection Defect Report, which lists the repairs carried out on Junction 6 Southbound between 1 January and 1 May. 9 claims were received for damage to vehicles or tyres in the same period.

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