Publication - FOI/EIR release

M80 various questions: EIR release

Published: 18 March 2020
Topic: Public sector, Transport
FOI reference: FOI/202000017685
Date received: 24 February 2020
Date responded: 17 March 2020

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

Information requested

"1. Confirmation of which organisation is in control of the M80.
2. Any details held pertaining to road traffic accidents that occurred between junctions 7 and 9 from February 2017 to date.
3. Any complaints that are held about the surface water between junctions 7 and 9 from 1 February 2017 to date.
4. Information about road drainage between junctions 7 and 9 from February 2017 to date.
5. Policies about inspections taking place between junctions 7 and 9 from February 2017 to date
6. Risk assessments in relation to surface water on the M80, notably between junctions 7 and 9 from February 2017 to date
7. Any internal or external investigations in relation to surface water on the M80, notably between junctions 7 and 9 from February 2017 to date
8. Any changes to the road or policies for between junctions 7 and 9 since 1 February 2020."

A further clarification confirmed:

"i) We would be grateful if you could confirm the organisation responsible for maintaining the section between junctions 7 and 9 on the M80 and the organisation responsible for maintaining the M80 as a
whole.
ii) Please advise us of all information in relation to road drainage that you can provide to us; such as what inspections that are in place, how often are they checked, what is done to prevent drain blockages and what is done to prevent surface water etc.
iii) Yes – we can confirm that we are looking for documentation relating to inspection regimes that are in place.
iv) We were referring to any changes that there have been either to the road itself or policies held in relation to the road since 1 February 2020."

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.

To help with the response I have retained the numbering in your original request:
1. The M80 is managed by more than one operating company on behalf of Transport Scotland.
• Scotland Transerv - from its junction with the M8 to junction 2 of the M80.
• HMG - from junction 2 to junction 7.
• Amey – from junction 7 to junction 9.

2. Please refer to Annex A to this response for details of road traffics accidents between Junctions 7 and 9 of the M80 from February 2017 to date. An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested 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.

3. Please refer to Annex B to this response for details of complaints held regarding surface water between Junctions 7 and 9 of the M80 between 1 February 2017 to date.

4 - 5. The information you have requested is available from Schedule 7 Part 1 of the SE Unit Maintenance Contract https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/35897/se-combined.pdf. Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

6. Please see Annex C to this request for copies of the Disruption Risk Assessment Tool assessments carried out between Junctions 7 and 9 of the M80 from February 2017 to date.

7. Two investigations into the issues identified by the DRAT assessments above are underway. An exception under regulation 10(4)(d) of the EIRs (unfinished or incomplete information) applies to the information you have requested because the investigations are incomplete. The surface water incidents identified in DRAT 032 are currently being investigated for a design solution and discussions on the action to be taken on the issues identified by DRAT 036 are ongoing.

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 some public interest in release as part of open, transparent and accountable government. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring that unfinished investigations are not disclosed when it might misinform the public.

8. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we do not have the information you have requested. This is because there has been no changes to the road or policies since 1 February 2020.
Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs.
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 the M80 and road policies, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

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