National Speed Management Review information: EIR release

Information requested

1. How many responses have you had so far to the National Speed Management Review consultation?

2. Please could you provide me with the list of roads which would be impacted in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray, Highlands, Angus and Dundee if these plans go ahead please?

3. Please could you also supply me with the cost of the review to date, broken down by costs such as consultation 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 enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

1. There has been 19,566 responses received to the National Speed Management Review consultation.

2. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reasons why that exception applies are explained below.

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. We do not have the information you have requested because our work to date has not looked at specific routes in isolation at this stage.

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 information about the impacted roads in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray, Highland, Angus and Dundee, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

3. A breakdown of the review costs per financial year has been provided below;

Financial Year	Amount
2021-22	£100,368.59
2022-23	£89,310.81
2023-24	£146,269.07
2024-25	£177,798.19

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.