Transport Scotland - A9 dualling project: EIR release

Information requested

1.How much does it cost Transport Scotland to respond to the average objection?
2.How much did it cost Transport Scotland to respond to objections lodged on the A9 Dualling project?
3.How many objections in total were received for the A9 dualling project?

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. How much does it cost Transport Scotland to respond to the average objection?

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have the information you have requested. 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. Transport Scotland does not have the information you have requested because Transport Scotland does not hold specific data on the cost of responding to objections to major infrastructure projects.
Costs associated with responding to objections cannot be disaggregated from general scheme preparation costs due to the way internal and external resources are accounted for.

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 requested information, clearly, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

2. How much did it cost Transport Scotland to respond to objections lodged on the A9 Dualling project?

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have the information you have requested. 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. Transport Scotland does not have the information you have requested because Transport Scotland does not hold specific data on the cost of responding to objections. Costs associated with responding to objections cannot be disaggregated from general scheme preparation costs due to the way internal and external resources are accounted for.

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 requested information, clearly, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

3. How many objections in total were received for the A9 dualling project?

The A9 Dualling programme comprises of eleven discrete projects; the number of objections received to the published draft Orders for each project and overall total number of objections received is provided in the table below:

Project	Number of Objections
Luncarty to Pass of Birnam	16
Pass of Birnam to Tay Crossing	71
Tay Crossing to Ballinluig	22
Pitlochry to Killiecrankie	13
Killiecrankie to Glen Garry	183
Glen Garry to Dalwhinnie	7
Dalwhinnie to Crubenmore	6
Crubenmore to Kincraig	60
Kincraig to Dalraddy	3
Dalraddy to Slochd	42
Tomatin to Moy	14
Total	437

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.