Testing results for recent A83 Castleton to Kilmory scheme: EIR release

Information requested

You asked for "test results for material laid (grading, bitumen content etc) for the A83 Castleton recent resurfacing including all temperatures taken from loads when arrived on Site and all temperatures of material being laid."

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 and B to this response for details of the testing results for the recent A83 Castleton to Kilmory scheme held by Transport Scotland. 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. In this particular case, this exception relates to the names and contact details of staff involved in the testing and certification processes and you will see that this information has been redacted.

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 part of your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. This is because you specifically requested “grading and binder content” but the Specification for Highways Works does not require this data to be supplied routinely and so it is not held by Transport Scotland. We cannot, therefore, provide this information since we do not hold it.

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 grading and binder content, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

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.

FOI202000106723 - Annex A

File type

23 page PDF

File size

2.8 MB

FOI202000106723 - Annex B

File type

5 page PDF

File size

907.5 kB