Information relating to A9 and A99: EIR release

Information requested

I am requesting the following information regarding the A9 road stretching from Wick (Caithness) to Inverness. I would like this information to date back to 2015, if this is possible.

1. How many accidents has there been? Including serious/fatal.

2. How many road users (if possible) use this stretch of road? If there is an average at all? This number I’m sure has significantly increased given the NC500 is now in full swing.

3. How many times has the snow gates had to be used?

4. How many times has the roads been restricted due to road works?

5. How many farms are on the stretches of each road?

You clarified this request with the following information -

• A9 Raigmore Junction to Thurso
• A99 Latheron to Wick
• 2015/2016/2017/2018/2019/2020 and ongoing 2021 information if possible Including how many cyclist users on the road recorded? As well as how many farms are on the stretches of each road?

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.

1. Please see Annex A to this response, accident statistics from 1 January 2015 - 7 September 2021.

2. 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 cyclist numbers are not recorded separately.

Please see Annex B to this response which provides details of traffic volumes recorded at the various traffic counters on the route.

3. The snow gates have been closed 16 times from 1 January 2015 - 29 September 2021.

4. There have been roadworks on the A9 on 4803 occasions and 487 times on the A99 since 1 January 2017. These figures include roadworks involving road closures, lane closures, mobile lane closures, road narrowing, single lane running, contraflows, convoy working, give and take traffic control and portable traffic lights.

5. 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 Transport Scotland does not hold records of properties on the Trunk Road Network.

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.

FOI202100241229 - Annex A

File type

1 page PDF

File size

105.2 kB

FOI202100241229 - Annex B

File type

7 page PDF

File size

116.6 kB