Inspection report for A78: EIR release

Information requested

Copy of the following information, electronically:-
1. Road report for February and July 2021 from the north of Largs to Netherhall.

2. Road report from the traffic lights at the junction of the A78 and the Haylie Brae to the Fairlie bowling club.

3. The certification of your inspectors showing how he/she is competent to inspect road defects.

On 7 December you further clarified "Surely the companies who you employ to look after the road network do visual inspections of the road. What I would like is a copy of the report the inspectors make."

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&2. Please see Annex A-D to this request for copies of the relevant inspection records for the date range and locations specified.

3. 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 there is currently no requirement for certification to show the competency of Route Inspectors. All Route Inspectors receive the proper training required to carry out their roles competently.

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 inspectors, 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.

FOI202100251025 - Annex A - D

File type

5 page PDF

File size

221.1 kB