Transport Scotland - Incidents at various sites: EIR release

Information requested

Under the Freedom of Information Act (2002), I wish to acquire the following information:
Reported (a) accidents and (b) incidents, broken down by (i) near miss and (ii) undesired circumstance reported on the following projects:

• M8 Motorway Improvements
• M73 Motorway Improvements
• M74 Motorway Improvements
• Forth Replacement Crossing
• AWPR
• A9 Dualling Perth to Inverness
• A90/A96 Haudagain Improvement
• A737 The Den Realignment
• A77 Maybole Bypass
• A9 Berriedale Braes Improvement Scheme
• A9 Luncarty to Pass of Birnam
• A737 Dalry Bypass
• A9 Cromarty Bridge Refurbishment
• A83 Improvements
• A83 Rest and Be Thankful
• Aberdeen to Inverness Rail Improvements
• Highland Main Line
• Glasgow Subway Modernisation
• Electrification Programme
• Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme

You provided clarification on this request on 29 July 2019 to state that you are requesting the number of health & safety incidents and the number of incidents involving damage to plant and machinery on the project sites listed from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2018.

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.

M8 M73 M74 Motorway Improvements Project, A92/A96 Haudagain Improvement, A9 Dualling Perth to Inverness, Forth Replacement Crossing, A737 The Den Realignment, A77 Maybole Bypass, A9 Berriedale Braes Improvement Scheme, A9 Luncarty to Pass of Birnam, A83 Improvements, A83 Rest and Be Thankful and A9 Cromarty Bridge Refurbishment

For the road projects above, please see the table below for the number of health and safety incidents and incidents related to plant and machinery.

Project	Health and Safety Incidents	Plant and Machinery incidents
M8 M73 M74	86	352
A92/A96 Haudagain	7	1
A9 Dualling Perth to Inverness	54	6
Forth Replacement Crossing	594	35
A737 The Den	0	0
A77 Maybole Bypass	0	0
A9 Berriedale Braes	0	0
A9 Luncarty to Pass of Birnam	0	0
A83 Improvements	0	0
A83 Rest and Be Thankful	0	0
A9 Cromarty Bridge	1	0

A737 Dalry Bypass, A9 Kincraig to Dalraddy and Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route/Balmedie to Tipperty (AWPR/B-T) Project

For the road projects above while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have the information you have requested as the contractors do not hold this information in the format requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), Transport Scotland is not required to provide information which it does not have.

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. While we recognise there may be some public interest in reporting of accidents and incidents relating to plant and machinery, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

However, in order to be helpful, I can provide information held by the contractor in the format below;

Project	Total near miss	Total accidents	Total incidents
A9 Kincraig to Dalraddy	7	21	8
A737 Dalry Bypass	6	0	11
AWPR	418	170	N/A

Aberdeen to Inverness Rail Improvements, Highland Main Line, Electrification Programme and Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not hold the information you have requested for the rail projects listed above. We do not hold this information as rail safety is a matter reserved to the UK Government. Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), Transport Scotland is not required to provide information which it does not have.

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. While we recognise there may be some public interest in health & safety incidents and the number of incidents involving damage to plant and machinery for the above projects, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

However, you may wish to contact Network Rail, who are responsible for the delivery of the above projects as they may hold the information you have requested. They can be contacted via the Network Rail FOI unit at: Network Rail at FOI@networkrail.co.uk

Glasgow Subway Modernisation

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not hold the information you have requested for the Glasgow Subway modernisation. Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), Transport Scotland is not required to provide information which it does not have.

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. While we recognise there may be some public interest in health & safety incidents and the number of incidents involving damage to plant and machinery clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

However, you may wish to contact Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, who are responsible for the delivery of the Glasgow Subway Modernisation, at enquiry@spt.co.uk and who may have the information you requested.

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.