Correspondence regarding dualling programmes for the A9 and A96 roads: EIR release

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


Information requested

1. Copies of all correspondence from March, April and May 2021, sent to or from the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity, in which there is discussion of the timetable and funding arrangements for the dualling programmes for the A9 and A96 roads.

Response

As all of 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.

In response to your request above, please refer to Annex A which contains extracts from correspondence sent to and from the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity from March 2021 to May 2021.

Please refer to Annex B which contains extracts of submissions to the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity from March 2021 to May 2021 in relation to the A9 and A96 Dualling programme as per your request.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exception(s) under regulation(s) 11(2) of the EIRs applies to that information.

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. This exception has been applied to Annex A and B contained within this response.

Further information
Although falling outwith scope of your request we have also included the response that was issued to the piece of correspondence received 26 May 2021 from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy, Kate Forbes MSP. Please note that the response is from the Minister for Transport, Graeme Day MSP, although was originally sent to the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport.

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.

FOI202100216548 - Annex A
FOI202100216548 - Annex B

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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