A9 Dualling Project Labour Costs: EIR release

Information requested

Please provide the following information:

1. Since 2012, annual expense directly on construction for dualling the A9.

2. Since 2012, annual expense on labour directly working on main construction works for dualling the A9.

3. Since 2012, annual hours of labour directly working on main construction for dualling the A9.

4. Since 2012, broken down by year, average cost of labour per hour directly on construction for dualling the A9.

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.

Responses to each parts of your question are provided below.

1. Since 2012, annual expense directly on construction for dualling the A9

Please refer to the table provided as part of previous request, case 202300384280. This table can be filtered by activity for Construction Costs (inc advanced works). The figures provided are inclusive of VAT where applicable.

Some information within the table has been redacted. 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.

2. Since 2012, annual expense on labour directly working on main construction works for dualling the A9

3. Since 2012, annual hours of labour directly working on main construction for dualling the A9

4. Since 2012, broken down by year, average cost of labour per hour directly on construction for dualling the A9

In regards to details of labour (hours and expense) on the A9 Dualling Programme, exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held) applies.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have the information you have requested 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. 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. While we recognise there may be some public interest in expenses specific to labour and annual hours of labour, 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.

EIR 202300385117 - Information Released - Annex

File type

Excel document

File size

204.7 kB