Payments made to FCBC Ltd for the Queensferry Crossing delays: EIR release

Information requested

Any payments and their values were made to FCBC Ltd, the contractor who built the Queensferry Crossing, to buy back the delays accrued by their right under their contract for the award of extensions of time for unforseen ground conditions.

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 payment of £13,339,119.25 was made to FCBC Ltd for costs incurred in lieu of an extension of time that would otherwise have been due in respect of unforeseen marine ground conditions.

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.