E-scooter trials in Scotland: FOI review
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
Information requested
Please can you confirm whether the Scottish government holds any information produced since the UK government's announcement of e-scooter trials in Great Britain in May 2020 which relates to the matters of:
a) The amendment of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984, Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016, and any other legislation in order to practically permit e-scooter trials to take place in Scotland.
b) Whether, how and when the Scottish government should support, and/or prioritise, the establishment of e-scooter trials in Scotland.
Response
I have concluded that a different decision should be substituted. I have determined that we were not entitled to respond to your request under section 12 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA).
Officials originally searched Government records with too wide a frame of reference. This meant that well over 1,000 possibly relevant documents were found and it was calculated that the time required to establish if these documents were indeed relevant took your request over the upper cost threshold as outlined in section 12 of FOISA.
In addition the responses to your original queries could have been more helpful and further assistance should have been provided to help clarify your request.
As part of the review, however, and upon careful reading of your original request we were able to conduct the searches again with a new frame of reference that returned a manageable number of documents to collate within the £600 upper cost limit.
Some of the documentation that is relevant to your request is set out at Annex A.
Is it important to note that 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 exemptions under, section 29(1)(a) (policy development), Section 30 (b (i) and c) (effective conduct of public affairs), section 36(1) (legal advice) and section 38(1)(b) (personal data) of FOISA applies to the information. The reasons why that exemptions applies are explained in Annex B.
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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