Communication with Network Rail regarding proposed Winchburgh train station: FOI release

Information requested

‘Transport Scotland was sent a submission from Network Rail and officials to review the funding for a proposed station at Winchburgh. This was some time ago and there has been no response on the matter’.

Please release all information regarding the review of this proposal.

After clarification, we focused our results to:

‘Communication between Transport Scotland and Network Rail regarding the proposal and Internal communication in Transport Scotland regarding the proposal’.

Response

Please find attached in this letter Annex A which contains all communication that falls within the scope of your request.

While we aim to provide the information wherever possible, some of the information has been redacted in line with the following FOISA exemptions:

Section 33(1)(b) - Substantial prejudice to commercial interests

An exemption under section 33(1)(b) of FOISA (Substantial prejudice to commercial interests) applies to some of the information requested.

This exemption applies because disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the commercial interest of third parties.

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. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open and transparent government, and to help account for the expenditure of public funds. However, there is a greater public interest in protecting the commercial interests of businesses involved in Scottish Government’s activities, therefore the exemption applies.

Section 38(1)(b) – Personal data of a third party

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names and contact details of individuals, 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 exemption 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 exemption.

The information that has been redacted has been clearly marked with the relevant exemption i.e. Section 30 (b)(i).

The remaining information that has been redacted is that which falls into the exemption of section 38 (1) (b) – third party data.

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.

FOI 202300389871 - Information Released - Annex A

File type

8 page PDF

File size

347.4 kB