Information relative to the A83 east of Kilmory Roundabout in Lochgilphead: EIR release

Information requested

1. Details of all carriageway repair works carried out by or on behalf of BEAR Scotland to potholes or other road defects at the above locus in February 2024.

2. Details of all carriageway repair works carried out by or on behalf of BEAR Scotland to potholes or other road defects at the above locus in July 2024.

3. Details of all carriageway inspections carried out by or on behalf of BEAR Scotland at the above accident locus between 01 January 2024 and 01 August 2024. This should include copy video footage if driven inspections were conducted.

4. Details of all carriageway repair and resurfacing works carried out by or on behalf of BEAR Scotland at the above locus between 01 August 2024 and 01 April 2025.

5. Details of all recorded road traffic accidents involving motorcycles at the above locus between 01 January 2024 and 01 April 2025.

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 and have retained your numbering for ease.

1. You asked for details of all carriageway repair works carried out by or on behalf of BEAR Scotland to potholes or other road defects at the above locus in February 2024.

Please see Annex A to this response for details of all carriageway repair works carried out by or on behalf of BEAR Scotland to potholes or other road defects at the above locus in February 2024.

2. You asked for details of all carriageway repair works carried out by or on behalf of BEAR Scotland to potholes or other road defects at the above locus in July 2024.

Please see Annex A to this response for details of all carriageway repair works carried out by or on behalf of BEAR Scotland to potholes or other road defects at the above locus in July 2024.

3. You asked for details of all carriageway inspections carried out by or on behalf of BEAR Scotland at the above accident locus between 01 January 2024 and 01 August 2024. This should include copy video footage if driven inspections were conducted.

Please see Annex B to this response for details of all carriageway inspections carried out by or on behalf of BEAR Scotland at the above accident locus between 01 January 2024 and 01 August 2024.

Regarding the video footage: while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under the exception at regulation 10(4)(b) of the EIRs a public authority may refuse a request for information if it is 'manifestly unreasonable'. The Scottish Information Commissioner's guidance on the regulation 10(4) (b) exception at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/Law/EIRs/EIRsExceptions.aspx says that there may “be instances where it is appropriate for the Commissioner to consider the proportionality of the burden on the public authority in terms of the costs and resources involved in dealing with a request when considering the application of this exception”.

In this case, you requested details of all carriageway inspections carried out by or on behalf of BEAR Scotland at the above accident locus between 01 January 2024 and 01 August 2024. You stated this should include copy video footage if driven inspections were conducted.

Our Operating Company, BEAR Scotland, estimate this would take a member of staff approx. 40 hours to review, download and redact any footage within the scope of this request with costs in the region of £2000. Therefore we consider this to be a manifestly unreasonable request. However, BEAR Scotland has extracted video footage for the months of February 2024 and July 2024 as these dates correspond with the search parameters for your other requests. This footage is included with this response as Annexes D – K. Please note these Annexes will be issued by separate email/s due to their size.

As the exception is conditional we have applied the 'public interest test'. This means we have, in all the circumstances of this case, considered if the public interest in disclosing 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 releasing the video footage, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring the efficient and effective use of public resources by not incurring excessive costs when complying with information requests.

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. 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.

A further exception under regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held) is being applied. Transport Scotland is not required to provide information which it does not have. Transport Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested because under the terms of their contract, BEAR Scotland are only required to keep one video per month after one year, therefore only one video for February 2024 is held which is included with this response as Annex J.

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 releasing video footage of safety inspections, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

BEAR Scotland has confirmed they can arrange a viewing of data in their Perth offices or screen images of key areas of interest if this is helpful. Please contact Transport Scotland by email at info@transport.gov.scot quoting ref: 202500459883 should you wish to make arrangements to view other video footage.

4. You asked for details of all carriageway repair and resurfacing works carried out by or on behalf of BEAR Scotland at the above locus between 01 August 2024 and 01 April 2025.

BEAR Scotland advise resurfacing works were carried out at this location between 29 – 31 October 2024, 50m one side of the roundabout and 115m the other side.

5. You asked for details of all recorded road traffic accidents involving motorcycles at the above locus between 01 January 2024 and 01 April 2025.

There has been 2 motorcycle accidents between 1/4/24 and 3/3/25 (latest date that collisions have been uploaded from Police Scotland) Please see Annex C to this response for details.

Please note that the information provided is based on the current figures available at the time of retrieving the data from Transport Scotland’s accident manager system. The following are potential reasons for an accident not appearing on our system:

• Transport Scotland only holds accident information which is provided to us by Police Scotland.
• Transport Scotland does not hold information relating to damage only accidents (i.e. not involving an injury).
• The accident information Transport Scotland holds is subject to change. E.g. we receive late returns from Police Scotland, who are responsible for recording details of injury accidents.
• Annual Scottish accident figures are published by Transport Scotland on a yearly basis and can be found by entering Reported Road Casualties Scotland into your search engine.
• From summer 2019, Police Scotland introduced a new system for recording traffic collisions. Due to improved recording and categorisation processes, it is expected that there will be an increase in the number of casualties and accidents on Scottish roads that are classified as serious. This increase would not reflect an actual change in the severity of accidents occurring on Scottish roads but would instead reflect more accurate recording.

Statisticians within the Department for Transport have devised a method for adjusting the road casualty figures to ensure that they can be compared over time on a consistent basis. Transport Scotland’s Key Reported Road Casualties and Reported Road Casualties statistics publications will present both adjusted and unadjusted figures.

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 202500459883 - Information released - Annex A - C

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