Transport Scotland - A737 improvements at Beith project and junction safety: EIR release

Information requested

I would like to request all copies of correspondence since 6 May 2021 between Transport Scotland and the following representatives:

• West of Scotland MSP Jamie Greene
• West of Scotland MSP Pam Gosal
• West of Scotland MSP Russell Findlay
• North Ayrshire Council Cllr Ronald Stalker

Regarding the A737 Improvements at Beith project and/or junction safety at any of the junctions in Beith between Manrahead roundabout and where the A737 meets Roebank Road.

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.

Response

Please see Annex A for some of the information requested. Please note that some of this information has been redacted, please refer to exception details below.

In regards to correspondence to/from Pam Gosal MSP, Russell Findlay MSP and Cllr Ronald Stalker, this information is not held. Please refer to exception details below.

Regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information)
An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information you have requested because it is the personal data of a third party. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance a small amount of information, i.e. names of junior Scottish Government officials and employees of other organisations, have been redacted. This exception applies because disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and 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.

Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held)
Whilst our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested. We do not hold correspondence to/from Pam Gosal MSP, Russell Findlay MSP and Cllr Ronald Stalker in relation to A737 Improvements at Beith project and/or junction safety at any of the junctions in Beith between Manrahead roundabout and where the A737 meets Roebank Road.

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. 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. While we recognise there may be some public interest in, correspondence to/from Pam Gosal MSP, Russell Findlay MSP and Cllr Ronald Stalker in relation to A737 Improvements at Beith project and/or junction safety at any of the junctions in Beith between Manrahead roundabout and where the A737 meets Roebank Road, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

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 202600504906 - Information Released - Annex A

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PDF

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5.1 MB