A9 Dualling Programme public exhibitions costs: EIR release

Information requested

The total amount that Transport Scotland paid to host its public exhibitions on A9 Dualling in Inverness, Aviemore, Dalwhinnie, Pitlochry and Perth from 14-29 February 2024, broken down into a table to reflect the main costs.

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.

I can advise that we only hold part of the information you have requested. From the information we hold, we have been able to disaggregate costs related to the A9 Dualling Programme public exhibitions held between 14 and 29 February 2024 totalling £23,737.63, excluding VAT.

This figure includes some costs including preparation of exhibition materials, venue hire, consultancy staff support and expenses. However, it does not include all of the costs related to the public exhibitions as due to the way that some of the costs are invoiced, costs relating specifically to the public exhibitions cannot be disaggregated within the cost information that we hold. Further details can be found below.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have the information you have requested. We do not hold some of the cost information associated with preparing and hosting the public exhibitions as some of the costs cannot be disaggregated within the information provided on the invoices. 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 public exhibitions spend, we cannot provide some of the 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 https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.