Publication - FOI/EIR release

Skye Bridge inspection report which precipitated road works: EIR release

Published: 25 June 2019
Topic: Public sector, Transport
FOI reference: FOI/19/01338
Date received: 28 May 2019
Date responded: 24 June 2019

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

Information requested

I would like to request a copy of the full Skye Bridge inspection report which identified the faults in the bridge’s expansion joints and which precipitated the current road works on the bridge.

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.

In response to your request, please see attached Annex A which is the Skye Bridge Principal Inspection, Annex B which is the Skye Crossing Inspection (Expansion Joints) and Annex C which is the Skye Bridge Underwater Inspection Report. Annex D and E are drawings which are referenced in Annex A.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some 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.

We also have applied an exception under regulation 10(5)(a) of the EIRs (prejudice to public safety) applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception applies because disclosure of this information would, or would be likely to endanger the safety of an individual.

An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs (substantial prejudice to confidentiality of commercial information) applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception applies because disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the confidentiality of commercial information provided by our Operating Company, Bear Scotland thus cause substantial harm to their commercial interests.

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