A82 Tarbet to Inverarnan - Analysis and design of cycleway/mixed path: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
Information requested
“…the latest design documents that incorporate the Cycle/Mixed Use Path” and;
“…details (spec and cost) of the Design Contract for this stretch of road and the Cost to Date.”
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.
You refer to your email of 12 February 2025, stating that Transport Scotland have failed to provide a response to your initial request of 14 December 2024. Transport Scotland provided a response to your email on 10 January 2025 and also responded to your subsequent email dated 15 January 2025 on 12 February 2025. In addition, you sent further emails on 12 and 26 February 2025 and Transport Scotland responded to these emails on 25 February 2025 and 18 March 2025. A copy of the responses provided by a Transport Scotland official are attached within Annex A to this letter for ease of reference.
An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998. This exception 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 exception.
The information withheld in the disclosed documents are personal details and email addresses.
With regard to your request for the latest design documents that incorporate the Cycle/Mixed Use Path, an exception applies.
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 documents showing the current design information including incorporation of the Cycle/Mixed Use Path is not held in any format other than that which has already been provided to you.
The email from Transport Scotland officials of 12 February 2025, also attached within Annex A to this letter, confirmed that drawings showing the preferred option design are available on the Transport Scotland website as part of the A82 Tarbet to Inverarnan Story Map. The drawings can be found within the “Proposed Scheme” section and the shared path proposals are shown in red on these interactive drawings.
We do not hold drawings in any other format, nor do we hold drawings showing the greater extent of detail you have requested. Under the terms of both FOISA and EIRs, we are not required to produce information we do not hold. It is expected that drawings in a format similar to those published as an appendix to the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) Stage 2 Report will be prepared and published as part of the DMRB Stage 3 Report once the design development process is concluded (including details of active travel proposals).
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 information as described above, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.
With regard to your request for “details (spec and cost) of the Design Contract for this stretch of road and the Cost to Date”, I can confirm that £18.675m has been spent to date as part of the design contract. These costs include design development, assessment and reporting, site surveys, environmental assessments and other design and assessment tasks necessary to complete the Strategic Business Case, Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) Stage 1 and Stage 2 Assessments and work to date on the development and assessment of the preferred option for the scheme (i.e. DMRB Stage 3 Assessment).
Your request for the specification for the design contract is considered to be best met by providing the scope of the contract. Extracts from the Single Supplier Framework Agreement for Design, Investigative and Environmental Services (“the Design Contract”) and the Invitation to Tender for the Design Contract (comprising the Framework Agreement and Services Requirements, and the Brief) are included at Annex B1 & 2.
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.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG