Safety Audit findings for the Lothianburn/Hillend junction and trunk road: EIR release

Information requested

Please may you provide either an electronic copy / viewable file including the below information:

• Most recent Stage 3 Safety Audit findings, completed by BEAR Scotland for the Lothianburn/Hillend junction and trunk road - in relation to the new Damhead traffic signal installation (further context in thread below).
• Any other Safety Audit information produced previous to this for the same area, in the last 5 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.

Please see Annex A to this response for a copy of the most recent Stage 3 Safety Audit findings, completed by BEAR Scotland for the Lothianburn/Hillend junction and trunk road - in relation to the new Damhead traffic signal installation.

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.

An exception under regulation 10(4)(d) (unfinished or incomplete document) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested in respect of the most recent Stage 3 Safety Audit findings, completed by BEAR Scotland for the Lothianburn/Hillend junction and trunk road - in relation to the new Damhead traffic signal installation because it is an unfinished document. This exception applies because to release the information at this stage would not demonstrate a conclusive outcome.

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 some public interest in release as part of open, transparent and accountable government. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring that unfinished or incomplete information is not disclosed when it might misinform the public or give a misleading impression of the Government’s view or position on the matter to which the information relates.

Please see Annexes B - J to this response for copies of any other Safety Audit information produced previous to this for the same area, in the last 5 years.

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.

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 202500473745 - Information released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

9.3 MB