Questions concerning road maintenance in the South East of Scotland: EIR release

Information requested

1. The total amount of funding for road maintenance in the South East of Scotland.

2. The total number of road miles covered by this funding.

3. The total amount of funding for road maintenance in the South West of Scotland.

4. The total number of road miles covered by this funding.

The formula by which this funding is allocated.

You clarified, also on 24 August that this information it is for current financial year commencing April 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.

I have kept your numbering for ease of reference:

1. The current indicative budget allocation for the unit is £61,250,000.

2. The total number of road miles covered by this funding is approximately 314.

3. The current indicative budget allocation for the unit is hile our aim is £64,780,000.

4. The total number of road miles covered by this funding is approximately 384.

5. The Trunk Road Operating Companies and Network Maintenance Companies carry out routine and cyclic operations in accordance with the requirements set out in the relevant contracts. The majority of these operations are paid through contractually committed sums based on tendered rates which are commercially sensitive. In addition, carriageway structural maintenance funds are allocated on a prioritised basis reflecting the condition of the trunk road network

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