Personal Rapid Transit System correspondence - Transport Scotland and Glasgow City Council: EIR release

 

You asked for all communications between Transport Scotland, and Glasgow City Council officers regarding the above decision and announcement (Personal Rapid Transit System), between 1st September 2018 and 10th February 2019.

 

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.

 

The following information is provided:

Annex A (with redaction) – Email Correspondence Between Transport Scotland and Glasgow City Council between 1st September 2018 and 10th February 2019, regarding progression the project business case.
Annex B - Airport Access Project, Executive Steering Group (30 January 2019), Project Update Report
Annex C - Airport Access Project, Executive Steering Group (30 January 2019), Presentation
Annex D - Airport Access Project, Executive Steering Group (30 January 2019), Agenda
Annex E – Transport Scotland Comments of Airport Access Project Evidence Update report, October 2018

 

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exception under regulation 10(4)(d) (Material in the course of completion, unfinished documents, or incomplete data) of the EIRs applies to that information. This applies to some of the documents attached to emails provided within Annex A – Email Correspondence Between Transport Scotland and Glasgow City Council, as the documents are in the course of completion.
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. We recognise that there is some public interest in decision making around surface to Glasgow Airport. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring accurate information is provided publically.

We are also unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exception under regulation 11(1) (Personal Information relating to Third Party) of the EIRs applies to that information. This applies to some of the emails attached within Annex A – Email Correspondence Between Transport Scotland and Glasgow City Council.

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. We recognise that there is some public interest in who was copied to correspondence. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in protecting personal information.

We are also unable to provide some of the information requested because an exemption under regulation 10(5)(f)( Prejudice to interests of person who provided the information of the EIR applies to that information. This applies to some of the email attached within Annex A – Email Correspondence Between Transport Scotland and Glasgow City Council.

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. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open and transparent government. However, there is a greater public interest in protecting the interests of anyone, such as the Glasgow City Council, who provides the Scottish Government with information on a confidential basis. Disclosing such information against the express wishes of the stakeholder is likely to undermine their trust in the Government and make them reluctant in future to share information with us on issues such as the Glasgow Airport Rail Link. This would significantly impair Transport Scotland’s ability to develop policies and make decisions on the basis of fully informed advice and evidence. This would not be in the public interest.

 

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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