Forth Road Bridge slip roads, signage, traffic lights and crossings: EIR release

FOI reference: FOI/18/03209  
Date received: 2 November 2018 
Date responded: 3 December 2018

 

 

Recently, at the slip roads at the south end of the Forth Road Bridge, two electronic signs, twelve traffic lights and two pedestrian crossing and the four associated lights have been erected.  Can you please tell me, under the freedom of information act, the cost of the erection (labour and material).

 

 

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. 

As the exemption is conditional we have applied the ‘public interest test’.  This means we have, in all the circumstances of this case, considered if the public interest in disclosing the information under FOISA 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.

The cost of these two electronic signs were £16,000 each.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.  Therefore we are refusing your request under the exemption at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs.  The reasons why that exception applies are explained below. 

 

 

The Scottish Government does not have all of the information requested

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. 

The Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested because the installation of the traffic lights at the south end of the Forth Road Bridge was included as part of the Forth Replacement Crossing Project.  The value of the elements of these works cannot be disaggregated form the total costs tendered. 

This exception 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 exception.  We have found that on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. 

While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about the cost of all on-going works on the Queensferry Crossing, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

 

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