Ongoing roadworks on the A78 at Inverkip Village: EIR release

Information requested

Might I respectfully request an FOI into a number of things in relation to the Inverkip road works.

• Might I see the risk assessment which pertain to the central reservation being used as a temporary carriageway?
• Might I ask if same said risk assessments were done in partnership with the various partners involved. Were the police consulted?
• Might I request how many complaints have been made regarding the utter disgraceful state of the central reservation at the Inverkip cut off? The dates from this are 4 August 2025 to 10 August 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.

1. You requested sight of the risk assessment which pertains to the central reservation being used as a temporary carriageway.

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. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because traffic management (TM) at this location is the responsibility of the Contractor, who was appointed by Inverclyde Council to construct the Inverkip City Deal Project. The Inverkip Project is a third party development and the TM is part of those third party works and not trunk road maintenance works. The TM layout was amended by the contractor to utilise the central running lane to progress the works on site. Both these organisations are responsible for installing TM to meet current standards. Inverclyde council can be contacted at: 24 Clyde Square, Greenock, PA15 1LY. Telephone: 01475 717171. 

2. You asked if said risk assessments were done in partnership with the various partners involved. Were the police consulted?

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. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because Amey and Police Scotland would not be involved in their risk assessments.

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 risk assessments, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold. 

3. You asked how many complaints have been made regarding the state of the central reservation at the Inverkip cut off? The dates from this are 4 August 2025 to 10 August 2025.

Our Operating Company, Amey confirm three complaints were received during the period 04 August 2025 - 10 August 2025.

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.