South West Scotland Strategic Transport Review 2019: EIR release

Information requested

All correspondence between the Scottish Government and Aecom LTD, in relation to the South West Scotland Strategic Transport Review in 2019.

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.

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(s) under Regulation 10(4)(d) Material in the course of completion, unfinished documents, or incomplete data, Regulation 10(5)(e) Confidentiality of
commercial or industrial information, provided for by law to protect legitimate economic interest and Regulation 11(1) To the extent that environmental information requested includes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject then the duty under regulation 5 (1) to make it available shall not apply to those personal data.of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why that exception(s) applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.

Such information has been listed as [Redacted] in relation to Regulation 11(1) personal data or [Redacted – Out of Scope] or [Redacted – Exception Applicable] where required
I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested in a PDF format outlined below. Where the information provided is in a broader document we have retained only the information that is in scope.

ANNEX i
REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION
An exception applies
An exception under regulation 10(4)(d) of the EIRs applies to some the information you have requested. Regulation 10(4)(d) Material in the course of completion, unfinished documents, or incomplete data applies to some of the information which relates to the draft documents on the lead up to the publication of the “Draft report - Initial appraisal: Case for change - South West Scotland Transport Study” Please find the links to the publications below –
https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/draft-report-initial-appraisal-case-for-change-south-west-scotland-transport-study/
https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/44272/executive-summary-borders-transport-corridors-pre-appraisal-report.pdf
*Please Note: AECOM are finalising an updated version South West Scotland
Transport Study Consultation Report at the moment, the intention is to publish it on the Transport Scotland website alongside the main report in the near future
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 release as part of open, transparent and accountable government. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring that unfinished or incomplete information is not disclosed when it might give a misleading impression of the Government’s view on the matter to which the information relates. The finalised draft report has also now been released, therefore the previous drafts are no longer required.

ANNEX ii
REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION
An exception applies
An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs applies to some the information you have requested. This relates to confidentiality of commercial or industrial information, provided for by law to protect legitimate economic interest, in this case payment rates for Scottish Government consultants.
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 have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception.  We recognise that there is some public interest in release as part of open, transparent and accountable government. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in the need for a fair tendering process, release of these figure could result in competitive advantage.

ANNEX iii
REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION
An exception applies
An exception under regulation 11(1) To the extent that environmental information requested includes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject then the duty under regulation 5 (1) to make it available shall not apply to those personal data.
The application of this exception is absolute under GDPR regulations.

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.

FOI-19-01459 Information Released

File type

440 page PDF

File size

6.6 MB