Information regarding the procurement of new trains: EIR release

Information requested

1 Any record of conversations involving senior managers (Alison Irvine, Fiona Brown, Morna Cannon, and Bill Reeve) relating to the procurement of new trains to replace the HSTs, including class 222s, from Nov 2024 to the current date.

2 - How many HSTs are currently in operation, and how many trains are being sought to replace them?

3- How much money has Transport Scotland spent on the procurement process to date, and how much do they expect to pay when purchasing the new trains?

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.

Point 1 of your request

The Scottish Government does not hold the information you requested. We hold no record of any conversations involving senior managers listed in your request. 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.

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 providing information however we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

This is a notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs, the Scottish Government does not hold the information requested.

Please note that since the Scottish Government’s decision to replace HSTs, which was reached last year, the procurement exercise itself is for ScotRail Trains Ltd to take forward, as the train operating company.

Point 2 of your request

25 High Speed Trains are currently in operation, which are sought to be replaced.

As available on Public Contracts Scotland website, ScotRail is seeking proposals for the supply of rolling stock to operate a minimum of 19 service diagrams per day on its intercity routes connecting Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth, Stirling, Dundee, Inverness and Aberdeen.

See following link for more information on the procurement: View Notice - Public Contracts Scotland

Further details regarding the rolling stock, which will replace the currently operating High Speed Trains are to be determined, once the procurement process has been finalised.

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.

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 providing information about how many replacement trains are being sought, however we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

This is a notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs, the Scottish Government does not hold the information requested.

Point 3 of your request.

You have asked about the cost, which has been incurred so far in relation to the procurement of the High-Speed Trains. Please note that it would not be possible to ascertain with confidence how much has been spent so far, as preparation for any exercise of such a scale involves a staff cost element (including Scottish Government, ScotRail Trains and Scottish Rail Holdings employees) and it would not be possible to attribute this element with accuracy. In addition, under EIR we can only provide information we hold at the time of the request being made. Even if it was possible to make any such attribution, making necessary calculations would constitute creating a new data to satisfy EIR request, which we are not required to do under EIR rules in place.

For the latter part of point 4 related to how much it is expected to be spent to procure fleet replacement for HSTs, this will be determined as part of the procurement process, which is currently underway.

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.

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 sought, however we cannot provide the information, which we do not hold.

This is a notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs, the Scottish Government does not hold the information requested.

Please note that due to the sensitivity of the commercial information related to the replacement of the High Speed Trains, some commercial details of this procurement, would be considered confidential, as releasing them would or would likely to substantially harm ScotRail’s economic interests.

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.