Road marker post and Emergency SOS phone locations in Scotland: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
Information requested
A copy of the Road Marker post locations and Emergency SOS phone locations for main roads and motorways in Scotland. If possible can the data be provided in an excel document containing the post marker or SOS phone reference number, name of road, direction of travel and the OS grid reference number.
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 to this response for the locations of the emergency SOS phone locations.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland 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, although we hold information on Road Marker Posts we don't hold all of their reference numbers or direction of travel.
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 marker posts, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.
However, please see Annex B to this response for the information we do hold in relation to marker posts. This information should be treated with caution as the accuracy can not be guaranteed.
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.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrews House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
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