Claims for damage to vehicles caused by road surface A75/A77: EIR release

Information requested

"I’d like to request under the Freedom of Information Scotland Act data about the number of claims for damage to vehicles caused by the state of the road surfaces (e.g. due to potholes, etc) on a) the A75 and b) the A77. In particular I would like to know 1) the number of claims, 2) a summary of the damage claimed for in each case (e.g. burst tyre, etc., in whatever format is most convenient to provide), 3) the result of the claim (where applicable)”. 

You clarified the date range on 10 June as the last three years.

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, our Operating Companies and DBFO Consessionaries indemnify Scottish Ministers in relation to claims, therefore we have no involvement in this process. Claims paid are on a ‘without prejudice’ basis.

I have numbered our response for ease of reference;  

1. In the last 3 years Scotland Transerv has received 239 claims for repair to vehicles arising from potholes and road defects on the A75 and A77.  

2. The table below provides the information you requested for the last three years. 

Route	Total No of Pothole / Road Surface Claims	Claims for Tyre Damage	Suspension Claims	Windscreen damage	Track rod damage	Settled claims
A75	58	49	7	2		3
A77	181	163	14	3	1	4

3. A total of 7 claims have been settled within this period.

About FOI

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.