Cross Tay Link road: EIR release

Information requested

1. Please provide copies of all correspondence Transport Scotland has exchanged with the DPEA regarding its consideration of DPEA case number CP0-340-6 since August 17 including copies of any documents shared.

2. Please provide copies of all correspondence Transport Scotland has exchanged with Perth and Kinross Council regarding DPEA case number CPO-340-6 since August 17 including copies of any documents shared.

3. Please provide copies of all internal correspondence Transport Scotland employees have exchanged regarding DPEA case number CP0-340-6 since August 17 including copies of any documents shared.

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 a copy of some of the information you requested. 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.

An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) Internal Communications of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. This relates to Transport Scotland’s staff dealings with its legal advisors and disclosure would breach legal professional privilege. In addition there are some internal communications which contain draft versions of the final documents such as the decision letter which we have provided the final version of. 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.

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. We recognise that there is some public interest in release as part of open and transparent government and to inform the public debate. However, this is outweighed by the strong public interest in maintaining the right to confidentiality of communications between legal advisers and clients, to ensure that Ministers and officials are able to receive legal advice in confidence, like any other public of private organisation. In addition there would be no public interest in releasing draft versions of decision letters or the discussions regarding these between officials when the fully published version was available within 12 weeks as is the case here.

Due to the size of the files we are unable to upload the documents referred to above. If you wish to consider, please contact us at the address below and we will be happy to provide.

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.