Liquid sprayed on A96 at Keith during winter months: EIR release

Information requested

1. What was the liquid being sprayed from the pavement tractor on 4.1.25 on Moss St, Keith?

2. Can I view the COSHH risk assessment for the liquid?

3. What streets are sprayed/treated in Keith over the winter months (November-March)?

4. What is cost of the liquid per square meter vs rock salt?

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.

Response to your request

To aid with my response I have repeated your questions below:

What was the liquid being sprayed from the pavement tractor on 4.1.25 on Moss St, Keith?

The liquid that was sprayed was a water/marine salt solution called brine.

Can I view the COSHH risk assessment for the liquid?

Please see Annex A to this response for a copy of the COSHH risk assessment for the solution. 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 Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

What streets are sprayed/treated in Keith over the winter months (November-March)?

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 some of the information you have requested because Transport Scotland, through our Operating Company Amey, is responsible for the management and maintenance of trunk roads in the north-east of Scotland. As such we can only confirm that the A96 at Moss Street and High Street is treated over the winter season.

However, you may wish to contact Moray Council at info@moray.gov.uk who may be able to provide information on the roads they are responsible for.

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.

What is cost of the liquid per square meter vs rock salt?

An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) (Confidentiality of commercial or industrial information) of the EIRs applies to the information you have requested. This is because Transport Scotland’s Operating Companies, in the case of the A96, Amey, are paid an agreed monthly Unitary Charge to carry out a range of winter services which contain a variety of commercially sensitive elements including salt and brine procurement.

As such, disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the confidentiality of commercial information provided by and thus cause substantial harm to their commercial interests.

Disclosing this information would be likely to give Amey’s competitors an advantage in future similar tendering exercises, which would substantially prejudice their ability to submit competitive tenders and so could significantly harm their commercial business.

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. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open and transparent government, and to help account for the expenditure of public money. However, there is a greater public interest in protecting the commercial interests of companies which enter into Transport Scotland contracts, to ensure that we are always able to obtain the best value for public money.

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.

EIR 202500454809 - Information Released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

697.7 kB