Breakdown of accidents on A90 from January 2017: EIR release

Information requested

Details of the number of fatalities and accidents on the A90 Perth to Dundee road over the last three years, including a breakdown of where these took place and when? Can you also please provide details of when the last safety road audit of the A90 Perth to Dundee road was carried out by the Scottish Government?

You also clarified that you would like details of the number of road accidents and the exact location on the A90 Perth to Dundee road from the beginning of 2017 (January 1st) up to the present time, or as near to that as is possible.

It is probably best to phrase it as a road safety audit, which is to identify aspects of engineering interventions that could give rise to road safety problems and to suggest modifications that could improve road safety. My understanding is that a road safety audit is undertaken by staff with experience of collision data analysis, road safety engineering experience and a reasonable understanding of highway design principles such as design requirements and best practice.

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 number of fatalities and accidents on the A90 Perth to Dundee road over the period requested, including a breakdown of where these took place and when. With regards to the last safety audit of the A90, under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), Transport Scotland is not required to provide information which it does not have. We do not have the information you have requested because we don’t undertake Road Safety Audits on a route basis as this process is something which applies to a road or highway improvement scheme. In terms of undertaking a review of road safety however, I can advise that this is carried out on an annual basis by our Operating Companies in terms of their Annual Road Safety Review (ARSR). The last ARSR which included the full length of the A90 was carried out during July-August 2020 and this will take place at the same time again this year.

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 Road Safety Audits, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

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FOI202100172252 - Annex A

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