Consultant costs for the A83 Rest and be Thankful: EIR release

Information requested

The total amount that has spent to date on consultants on the A83 Rest and be Thankful, broken down into a table that lists each consultancy firm.

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.

Consultant	Spend (to 6 February 2025)
Jacobs AECOM	£4,246,965.02
AtkinsRealis WSP Joint Venture	£15,228,870.70
Jacobs UK Ltd	£44,794.59
Valuation Office Agency	£8,000.00
TOTAL (to 6 February 2025)	£19,528,630.31

The above includes costs associated with engineering design, environmental assessment (including environmental survey work), traffic and economic assessment, stakeholder engagement, and supervision of ground investigation works and medium term solution construction works to the Old Military Road.

Further Information

Please note that Jacobs AECOM undertook the Preliminary Engineering Services work (Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) Stage 1 Route Corridor Assessment) and the Strategic Environmental Assessment as well as additional work in advance of DMRB Stage 2 Route Options assessment.

AtkinsRealis WSP Joint Venture (AWJV) were appointed in September 2022 to undertake completion of the DMRB assessment process including identification of a recommended preferred route option, completion of the necessary statutory process, procurement of a contractor and site supervision of the works.

Jacobs UK Ltd were appointed to carry out independent audit services on the Environmental Impact Assessment Report which forms part of the DMRB Stage 3 Assessment.

The Valuation Office Agency is appointed to advise on land valuation and compensation discussions.

This expenditure is not unreasonable given the complexity and challenges of the scheme and the extent of the work being carried out to complete it.

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.