Publication - FOI/EIR release

M80, M74 and M8 inspection reports: EIR release

Published: 18 May 2020
Topic: Public sector, Transport
FOI reference: FOI/202000033414
Date received: 29 April 2020
Date responded: 15 May 2020

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004

Information requested

"the inspection reports for these 3 areas for the dates between 1 October 2019 to 31 December 2019. Please include details of any resurfacing work carried out on these sections of the road between these dates.
M80 (between junctions 7 and 10, northbound and southbound)
M74 (between junctions 5 and 8, northbound and southbound)
M8 (between junctions 15 and 18, westbound and eastbound)"

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.

Please see Annex A-C to this response for copies of Inspection records for the areas and date range you requested.

The following resurfacing schemes were carried out between 1 October 2019 to 31 December 2019:
M80 (between junctions 7 and 10, northbound and southbound)
M80 S/B South of Falkirk Sign to Overheads - September/October 2019
M80 Easterton SB - December 2019

M74 (between junctions 5 and 8, northbound and southbound)
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does 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 there was no resurfacing work carried out in this area between 1 October 2019 and 31 December 2019.
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 resurfacing works, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

M8 (between junctions 15 and 18, westbound and eastbound)
M8 Woodside Viaduct WB and M8 Woodside Viaduct EB - November 2019

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