A82 Closures Involving Diversions Over 10 Miles: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004
Information requested
From 1 January 2015 to the present date, please provide:
1. A list of road closures on the A82 where the official diversion route in place was greater than 10 miles in length.
2. For each closure, please provide:
- The date of the closure
- The start and end points of the diversion route
- Total distance of the diversion (in miles)
- Reason for the closure
- Duration of the closure (in hours or days)
Please provide the information in tabular or spreadsheet format if available.
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.
The management and maintenance responsibilities of the A82 trunk road is split between two of our Operating Companies, Amey and BEAR Scotland. Amey is responsible for the section of the A82 which runs from Old Kilpatrick to Stoneymollan Roundabout near Balloch whereas BEAR Scotland is responsible for the section that runs from Stoneymollan Roundabout to Longman Roundabout, Inverness.
Please see Annexes A and B to this response for the closure details which Amey and BEAR Scotland hold. 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. Amey does not hold some the closure information requested as they were awarded the Network Maintenance Contract (NMC) for the South West of Scotland on 16 August 2020. As such, they do not hold the information requested for the date range 1 January 2015 to 15 August 2020.
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 road closures on the A82 trunk road, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.
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