A96 accident data: EIR release

Information requested

1. How many people were killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) per kilometre on the A96 Inverness to Nairn for all years 2019 to 2023.
2. How many people were Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) per kilometre on the A96 Hardmuir to Fochabers for all years 2019 to 2023.
3. How many people were Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) per kilometre on the A96 East of Fochabers to East of Huntly for all years 2019 to 2023.
4. How many people were Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) per kilometre on the A96 East of Huntly to Aberdeen for all years 2019 to 2023.
5. How many people were Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) per kilometre on the A96 Inverness to Aberdeen for all years 2019-2023.
6. How many people were Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) per kilometre on the A9 between Perth and Inverness for all years 2019-2023.

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.

Response to your request

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 some of the information you have requested because we do not store personal injury accident figures by kilometre.

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 personal injury data by kilometre, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

We are however able to provide the number of people that were Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) over the lengths of trunk road that correspond approximately with your descriptions. We have also provided a description of the extents for which the data corresponds.

To aid with my response I have retained the numbering from your request above:

1.  The number of fatalities or people seriously injured on the A96 trunk road between Raigmore Interchange and Marine Road/King Street Roundabout, Nairn is contained in the following table:

Year	Fatal	Serious Injury
2019	0	4
2020	0	3
2021	0	1
2022	0	5
2023 (Up to 7 August 2023)	0	3
Total	0	16

*see notes below

2. The number of fatalities or people seriously injured on the A96 trunk road between Wester Hardmuir Fruit Farm Junction and the B9104 roundabout by Fochabers is contained in the following table:

Year	Fatal	Serious Injury
2019	4	9
2020	1	2
2021	1	1
2022	0	1
2023 (Up to 7 August 2023)	0	3
Total	6	16

* see notes below

3. The number of fatalities or people seriously injured on the A96 trunk road between Fochabers East Roundabout and Aberdeen Road Junction by Huntly is contained in the following table:

Year	Fatal	Serious Injury
2019	1	2
2020	2	3
2021	1	4
2022	0	3
2023 (Up to 7 August 2023)	0	0
Total	4	12

* see notes below

4. The number of fatalities or people seriously injured on the A96 trunk road between Aberdeen Road Junction by Huntly and Craibstone Roundabout is contained in the following table:

Year	Fatal	Serious Injury
2019	0	7
2020	0	5
2021	0	10
2022	0	3
2023 (Up to 7 August 2023)	0	4
Total	0	29

* see notes below

5. The number of fatalities or people seriously injured on the A96 trunk road between Raigmore Interchange and Craibstone Roundabout is contained in the following table:

Year	Fatal	Serious Injury
2019	5	22
2020	3	13
2021	2	16
2022	1	15
2023 (Up to 7 August 2023)	0	16
Total	11	82

*see notes below

6. The number of fatalities or people seriously injured on the A9 trunk road between Inveralmond Roundabout and Longman Roundabout is contained in the following table:

Year	Fatal	Serious Injury
2019	1	26
2020	1	12
2021	1	20
2022	13	19
2023 (Up to 7 August 2023)	1	13
Total	17	90

* see notes below

*Please note that the information provided in the tables above is based on the current figures available.

The following are potential reasons for an accident not appearing on our system:

• Transport Scotland only holds accident information which is provided to us by Police Scotland
• Transport Scotland does not hold information relating to damage only accidents (i.e. not involving an injury).
• Transport Scotland only holds accident information for the trunk road network.
• The accident information Transport Scotland holds is subject to change. E.g. we receive late returns from Police Scotland, who are responsible for recording details of injury accidents.
• Annual Scottish accident figures are published by Transport Scotland on a yearly basis and can be found by entering Reported Road Casualties Scotland into your search engine.
• From summer 2019, Police Scotland introduced a new system for recording traffic collisions. Due to improved recording and categorisation processes, it is expected that there will be an increase in the number of casualties and accidents on Scottish roads that are classified as serious. This increase would not affect an actual change in the severity of accident occurring on Scottish roads but would instead reflect more accurate recording.
• Statisticians within the Department for Transport have devised a method for adjusting the road casualty figures to ensure that they can be compared over time on a consistent basis. Transport Scotland’s Key Reported Road Casualties and Reported Road Casualties statistics publications will present both adjusted and unadjusted figures.

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.