Correspondence regarding A96 in the Moray local authority area: EIR release

Information requested

“Under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, I wish to request the following information:

• In the last five financial years and in the year to date, how much money have the Scottish Government invested on the sections of the A96 located within the Moray local authority area?
• How much investment is planned in the next financial year on the sections of the A96 located within the Moray council area?
• In the last five financial years, and the year to date, how many (i) serious incidents have taken place on sections of the A96 located within the Moray local authority area (ii) fatalities (iii) minor collisions”.

Response

As all of 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 find below response to requests for information you made in your email.

Response to your request

In the last five financial years and in the year to date, how much money have the Scottish Government invested on the sections of the A96 located within the Moray local authority area?

We are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held) The Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. For road maintenance activities on the A96 trunk road, information is recorded on a whole route basis and cannot be broken into specific locations or council areas.

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 the requested information, clearly, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Further Information

For the A96 trunk road as a whole, from financial year 2018/19 until March 2023, the total spend on maintenance for this road through Transport Scotland’s contracts with private sector operating companies is £43,209,069.

In addition, from April 2018 to date, the Scottish Government’s spend on preparation of major trunk road improvement schemes on the A96 trunk road is as follows:

• A96 Dualling Inverness to Nairn (including Nairn Bypass) – £12,508,213.54
• A96 Dualling Hardmuir to Fochabers – £17,611,298.34
• A96 Dualling East of Huntly to Aberdeen - £19,846,242.05

How much investment is planned in the next financial year on the sections of the A96 located within the Moray council area?

We are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because the budgets for next year have still to be agreed by the Scottish Parliament.

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 the requested information, clearly, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Further Information

The draft Scottish Budget for 2024/25 was laid before Parliament on 19 December 2024 for approval. A copy of the draft Budget is available from the Scottish Government website at Scottish Budget: 2024 to 2025 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

In the last five financial years, and the year to date, how many (i) serious incidents have taken place on sections of the A96 located within the Moray local authority area (ii) fatalities (iii) minor collisions?

Date range (Financial Year)	Fatal	Serious	Slight	Total
1 April 2018 - 31 March 2019	2	3	5	10
1 April 2019 - 31 March 2020	4	6	4	14
1 April 2020 - 31 March 2021	2	1	3	6
1 April 2021 - 31 March 2022	1	1	5	7
1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023	0	6	3	9
1 April 2023 -1 November 2023*	1	4	1	6
Total	10	21	21	52

Source: Transport Scotland Accident Manager Database
Notes:
Statistics for Police Scotland
Date Period: 01/04/2018 - 1/11/2023
Date Extracted - 06/12/2023

Please note that the information provided 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).
• 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 reflect an actual change in the severity of accidents 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.