Transport Scotland - Performance Audit Group (PAG) and gully clearance information: FOI release
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Information requested
1. What does the contract between TS and PAG say about delivery of the PAG annual report? PAG's website's most recent annual report is for the 2022/ 23 year. Why does it take two years for PAG to produce an annual report?
2. Could I confirm contractually how often gullies are to be cleaned? Is there a specification on how gullies are cleaned?
3. Hypothetically, if gullies become blocked and there is grass growing out of them. What would happen? Would they be cleaned? Under what timescales?
4. I'd like to ask PAG about their approach to Inspections. Can I ask them questions under FOISA legislation?
Response
1. What does the contract between TS and PAG say about delivery of the PAG annual report? PAG's website's most recent annual report is for the 2022/ 23 year. Why does it take two years for PAG to produce an annual report?
Response to your question:
The PAG Annual Report is covered in clause 5 of Schedule 1 – Specification of the Performance Audit Group Contract.
It requires PAG to produce summary annual reports showing the performance of Suppliers in delivering the requirements of contracts and comparing performance of Suppliers.
No time-frame is stipulated for its provision, all reports are submitted in accordance with the programme agreed by Transport Scotland, with a final report received within 7 calendar days after receipt of comments from Transport Scotland.
Reports are recorded in accordance with the relevant templates show in Schedule 3. The Annual Report would be a Performance Report.
The templates are subject to change. Transport Scotland has worked with PAG over the years to develop and evolve the format of reports.
It was our intention to amend the format and content of the 23-24 Annual Report with a view to making it more user friendly and less technical. This improvement stalled production and other priorities took precedence. This was accentuated by change in personnel and resourcing challenges for PAG in the engineering market.
Transport Scotland has been sympathetic to PAG’s resourcing challenges and allowed PAG to focus on ensuring their other key deliverables are being met and that the required level of auditing and monitoring of the Operating Companies and other suppliers is maintained assisting Transport Scotland to monitor and address performance.
Our intention is to publish the two outstanding Annual Reports this calendar year, to do so we may revert to the current format and look to adopt an improved format once we have cleared the backlog.
Relevant extracts from the Performance Audit Group 2021 Contract are provided in Appendix A.
2. Could I confirm contractually how often gullies are to be cleaned? Is there a specification on how gullies are cleaned?
Response to your question:
Gullies are to be cleaned at intervals not exceeding 12 months, this is specified in the Trunk Road Information Manual, 4 Maintenance Requirements, 4.1 Asset Maintenance Requirements, 4.1.1 Drainage Asset Group. A copy of the Trunk Road Information Manual is provided for your information. If a gully becomes blocked it will be assessed as either a Category 1 defect or Category 2 defect and be dealt with according to the relevant timescales. These timescales are defined in the Trunk Road Information Manual, 3 Inspection Requirements, 3.2 Inspections for Trunk Road Network Safety, 3.2.4 Defect Response Times.
Schedule 5 Specification and Drawings of the Network Management Contract (NMC) specifies how gullies should be cleaned, relevant contracts extracts are provided in Appendix B.
Schedule 5 refers to clauses 520 The Cleaning of Existing Drainage Systems and clause 521 Low Pressure High Volume Jetting of Drainage Systems of the Manual of Contract Documents for Highway Works (MCHW), Volume 1 Specification for Highway Works, Series 500 – Drainage and Service Ducts.
The MCHW can be accessed via the Standards For Highways link. Please note that NMC uses the MCHW version current at 29 September 2025.
3. Hypothetically, if gullies become blocked and there is grass growing out of them. What would happen? Would they be cleaned? Under what timescales?
Response to your question:
The severity of a blockage would be assessed and determined as either a Category 1 or Category 2 defect and treated in accordance with the applicable time-frame as detailed in the Trunk Road Information Manual.
4. I'd like to ask PAG about their approach to Inspections. Can I ask them questions under FOISA legislation?
Response to your question:
Yes you can ask PAG their approach to inspections. PAG are not a public body therefore they are not required to respond under FOISA legislation.
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.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG