Transport Scotland - Aberdeen City Council low emission zone decision making process information: EIR release

Information requested

Information around the decision-making process for implementing the low emission zone in Aberdeen City Council.

1) Could you please provide the air quality data and statistics that would have been gathered during the data gathering window in Aberdeen City Council implementing their low emission zone, and show the trends in air quality that confirms action was required to reduce these concerns.

2) Along with this, can you please provide where this air quality information would have been given to the public so that they were aware of the quality before any low emission zone was implemented.

3) Could you also please provide the data gathering timeframe, along with start and end dates, that determined Aberdeen City Council required a Low Emission Zone to be implemented.

4) Furthermore, could you please provide how regular these data sets were gathered and what controls were in place to audit the equipment gathering the information.

5) Along with this, could you please provide information on where the physical readings within Aberdeen City Council were taken from.

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 answer to your question is:

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance under Under regulation 6(1) (b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

In response to question 1), in accordance with statutory requirements, Aberdeen City Council prepares and publishes annual Air Quality Progress Reports, as well as Air Quality Amendment Orders, and Revocation Reports and Orders. Documents covering the period June 2020 to January 2025 are available to view online at: https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/services/environment/air-qualityaberdeen/air-quality-reports.

The Aberdeen Low Emission Zone (LEZ) was subject to a robust option appraisal exercise, encompassing detailed air quality and traffic modelling, two rounds of formal public and stakeholder engagement, and a formal objection period.

A summary of these processes is provided in the following reports to Aberdeen City Council’s City Growth and Resources Committee:

• June 2021: https://committees.aberdeencity.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=83019#mgDocuments
• October 2020: https://committees.aberdeencity.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=618&MId=7213&Ver=4 (Item 20)

Other published documents that may be of interest regarding the decision-making process around Aberdeen’s LEZ are available at the following links:

• Notice to make a Low Emission Zone scheme | Aberdeen City Council
• Final Aberdeen LEZ submission considered by Scottish Ministers.pdf

As some of the links within the referenced documents may be unavailable, we are releasing pdf copies of the below files. Note, we may also email you directly with a copy of the response and attachments due to file size to ensure you receive all released items:

• NATIONAL LOW EMISSION FRAMEWORK – STAGE 2 ASSESSMENT
• CLEANER AIR FOR SCOTLAND – NATIONAL MODELLING FRAMEWORK Low Emission Zone Aberdeen Evidence Report October 2021
• CLEANER AIR FOR SCOTLAND NATIONAL MODELLING FRAMEWORK Low Emission Zone Aberdeen Evidence Report Addendum
• ABERDEEN LEZ MODEL TESTING REPORT

For answers to remaining questions 2) to 5), air quality data has been, and is, gathered regularly and published annually by Aberdeen City Council. This information is contained in the Aberdeen City Council Air Quality Annual Progress Reports which are available online at this link: Air quality reports | Aberdeen City Council.

In addition to the specific answers given above, the Air Quality in Scotland website provides air quality data for every monitoring station in Scotland. For each monitoring site it also indicates whether or not the data is ratified, and the percentage data capture for a given pollutant and year. There is also general background information on how data verification and ratification is undertaken: https://www.scottishairquality.scot/data/verification-ratification.

We have provided links above, to publicly available information in response to your request. However, you may also wish to contact the relevant local authority, in this case Aberdeen City Council. The LEZ team at Aberdeen City Council can be contacted via email at: transportstrategy@aberdeencity.gov.uk.

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 202500489997 - Information released - Attachments

File type

PDF

File size

5.8 MB