Accident statistics for the sections of the A720 Edinburgh City Bypass: EIR release

Information requested

You asked  “I was looking to find out how many road traffic accidents were recorded on the Edinburgh City Bypass (A720) for each year 2015, 2016. 2017, 2018 and 2019 where possible. I'd be looking for figures broken down so that we have accident numbers for six different sections of the City Bypass. We'd be looking to find out how many accidents were recorded each year between Old Craighall and Sheriffhall, Sheriffhall and Straiton, Straiton and Hillend, Hillend and Dreghorn, Dreghorn and Hermiston Gait, Hermiston Gait and Gogar.”

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.

Accident statistics for the sections of the A720 Edinburgh City Bypass from 2015 – 2019 are attached at Annex A.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of 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 the Trunk Road network stops just north of Hermiston, and the part of the A720 from there to Gogar is the responsibility of City of Edinburgh Council. However, you may wish to contact the City of Edinburgh Council at https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/FOIrequestform who may be able to help you.

Personal Injury Accident Statistics

	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019 (up to 30 April)	Total
A720 Old Craighall to Sheriffhall	6	10	3	5	0	24
A720 Sheriffhall to Straiton	9	9	2	9	3	32
A720 Straiton to Hillend	5	6	1	5	0	17
A720 Hillend to Dreghorn	2	7	5	3	0	17
A720 Dreghorn to Hermiston Gait	13	14	17	17	2	63
A720 Hermiston Gait to Gogar	5	11	0	0	0	16

Source: Transport Scotland Accident Manager Database
Notes:
Statistics for the Lothian and Borders Division of Police Scotland
Date Period: 01/01/2015 - 30/04/2019
Date Extracted - 24 January 2020

Please note that the information provided is based on the current figures available. The following are potential reasons for an accident not appearing on our system:

• Transport Scotland only holds accident information which is provided to us by Police Scotland.
• Transport Scotland does not hold information relating to damage only accidents (i.e. not involving an injury).
• Transport Scotland only holds accident information for the trunk road network.
• The accident information Transport Scotland holds is subject to change. E.g. we receive late returns from Police Scotland, who are responsible for recording details of injury accidents.
• Annual Scottish accident figures are published by Transport Scotland on a yearly basis and can be found by entering Reported Road Casualties Scotland into your search engine

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.