A68 from Pathhead to Lauder road closures: EIR release

Information requested

You stated : A68 from Pathhead to Lauder

I am respectfully requesting a F.O.I for the dates that the above part of the A68 has been closed or inaccessible (during any time of the day) from 20/03/2020 to 19/06/2026.

I also request the same information for the following time frame - 20/03/2014 to 19/06/2020.

If you could provide dates and hours each day that this section of road was closed or inaccessible*.

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.

Q1. You requested the dates and hours A68 Pathead to Lauder has been closed or inaccessible (during any time of the day) for the period 20/03/2014 to 19/06/2020.

A1. 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 all of the information you have requested because planned closures are not recorded on the Asset Management Performance System (AMPS) which is a system used by Transport Scotland and its Operating Companies to manage information on the trunk road network, monitor asset condition and performance, support maintenance planning.

Our Operating Company, BEAR Scotland have obtained information from their Content Management System (CMS). This is Traffic Scotland's Road Works Module (RWM) where all road works are booked by the Operating Company. However this information is only available from August 2020 when their current contract commenced.

The details attached provide the information available and may be helpful. Please note the information lists dates only, hours of closures is not information that is not held.

Attached as Annex A to this response are details of critical incidents, held by BEAR Scotland, as they provide details of unplanned closures, and will have resulted in road closures. Please note however BEAR Scotland do not hold any information prior to 2016.

Please see Annex B to this response for details of incidents recorded on the A68. Please note this is for the entire A68 and not just the location you have requested. This is because the information is recorded for the entirety of the road and not broken down to smaller locations. This information also includes lane closure incidents.

Please see Annex C to this response for road closure information held by BEAR Scotland from August 2020 as explained above.

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.

FOI 202600523162 - Information Released - Annex A - C

File type

PDF

File size

174.6 kB