Carlisle Road, Lanark - ownership and maintanence: EIR release

Information requested

You asked for:

i. "Please confirm that ownership of the subjects at Carlisle Road, Lesmahagow, Lanark is held by Scottish Ministers, as per the enclosed Title Sheet and Plan

ii. Please confirm whether or not there is a duty to inspect the area at Carlisle Road.

iii. Please confirm how often the inspections are undertaken at the property and by whom.

iv. Please supply any inspection records for the 12 months leading to 06/02/2018.

v. Please supply details of any previous complaints or incidents in the 12 months leading to 06/02/2018.

vi. Please provide any information held by the Scottish Ministers regarding the ownership and operation of the manholes situated at the above locus and within the area owned by the Scottish Ministers.

vii. Please provide any records of repairs or maintenance to the manholes situated at the locus from the 12 months leading to 06/02/2018 to present Photographs of the manhole which has been made safe are enclosed."

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.

The answers to your questions are detailed below:

i. The information you have requested is available from Registers of Scotland at https://www.ros.gov.uk/.

ii. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland do not have the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the El Rs. This is because no information is held. Transport Scotland do not have the information you have requested because it does not exist.

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. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about whether or not there is a duty to inspect the area at Carlisle Road, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

iii. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland do not have the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. This is because no information is held. Transport Scotland do not have the information you have requested because it does not exist.

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. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about how often inspections are carried out at the property and by whom, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

iv. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland do not have the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. This is because no information is held. Transport Scotland do not have the information you have requested because it does not exist.

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. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about inspection records for the 12 months leading to 06/02/2018, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

v. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland do not have the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs This is because no information is held. Transport Scotland do not have the information you have requested because it does not exist.

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. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about any previous complaints or incidents in the 12 months leading to 06/02/2018, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

vi. I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested: Annex A contains copies of correspondence requesting the area around the manhole be made safe.

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 under regulation 10(5)(b), Course of justice, ability to receive a fair trial, or ability to conduct a criminal or disciplinary inquiry of the EIRs applies to that information. This is because there is an active judicial procedure which is capable of being prejudiced by the release of this information.

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 a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, this is outweighed by the strong public interest in maintaining the right to confidentiality of communications between legal advisers and clients, to ensure that Ministers and officials are able to receive legal advice in confidence, like any other public or private organisation and to allow space for preparation in any legal proceedings.

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 under regulation 11 (2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to that information. That exception applies because the information 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.

vii. I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested: Annex A contains copies of correspondence requesting the area around the manholes be made safe and photographs showing fencing that has been erected around the manholes, after having been made aware of an incident in the area. This was done as a matter of safety and does not mean Scottish Ministers accept it was our obligation to do so.

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 under regulation 11 (2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to that information. That exception applies because the information 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/19/02250 - Annex A

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56 page PDF

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3.6 MB