Publication - FOI/EIR release

Sheriffhall roundabout and Edinburgh bypass incidents: EIR release

Published: 28 July 2025
Topic: Public sector, Transport
FOI reference: EIR/202500466050
Date received: 13 May 2025
Date responded: 6 June 2025

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

Information requested

How many incidents (e.g. accidents, closures, major delays etc) have been recorded around Sheriffhall roundabout over the last ten years?

How much money has been spent on the above over the same period?

How many such incidents have been recorded on the Edinburgh bypass generally over the last ten years?

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.

To aid my response I have repeated your questions below.

How many incidents (e.g. accidents, closures, major delays etc) have been recorded around Sheriffhall roundabout over the last ten years?

There were 277 incidents record on the Sheriffhall roundabout between 2 June 2015 to 12 April 2025.

For your information the following is lists describes what we consider to be incidents.

Abandoned/Broken Down Vehicle

Damaged Road and Roadside Furniture

Flooding

Ice

Landscaping / Fallen / Overhanging Branches

Litter / Debris / Animals

Misuse of network - mobile phone use

Obstruction or Damage from Vandalism

Other

Pedestrian on network

Police Incident

Road Traffic Collision

Road Works

Scouring of Roads and Structures

Shed loads

Snow

Spillages of Liquids

Structural Failure (other than caused by RTC)

Traffic Light Fault

Welfare (driver unwell etc.)

How much money has been spent on the above over the same period?

An exception under regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held) also applies to the information you have requested. Transport Scotland is not required to provide information which it does not have. We do not have the information you have requested because BEAR Scotland is paid an agreed monthly Unitary Charge to carry out a range of services, including Trunk Road Incident Support Service (TRISS) and Incident response. As such, figures for incidents cannot be disaggregated.

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 costs spent on incidents, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

How many such incidents have been recorded on the Edinburgh bypass generally over the last ten years?

There were 12,600 incidents on the A720 Trunk Road between 5 May 2015 to 19 May 2025.

For your information again, the following is lists describes what we consider to be incidents: