Transport Scotland gritting operations details on M8 motorway: EIR release

Information requested

Details of gritting operations on the M8 motorway for a distance of one mile on either side of junction 30 together with details of gritting operations on the slip road off the M8 at junction 30 giving access to the M898 and covering the period 1st February 2019 – 7th February 2019.

Details of weather information relied upon in connection with the gritting operations referred to above and covering the period 28th January 2019 – 7th February 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.

In response to your request, please refer to Annex A which details gritting operations on the M8 motorway for a distance of one mile on either side of junction 30 together with details of gritting operations on the slip road off the M8 at junction 30 giving access to the M898 and covering the period 1 February 2019 – 7 February 2019.

Annex B details  weather information in connection with the gritting operations referred to above and covering the period 28 January 2019 – 7 February 2019.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information contained within Annex A and Annex B 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.

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-19-01478 Information released Annex A

File type

15 page PDF

File size

858.9 kB

foi-19-01478 Information released Annex B

File type

3 page PDF

File size

674.2 kB