FOI/19/02469 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Various questions relating to the A9 between Gleneagles and Aberuthven: EIR release
Information requested
You asked for
“1. Information including sight of any written or electronic communication detailing all reports of road surface defects on the A9, Auchterarder between A824 and Main Road A824 junctions from February 2019 to June 2019.
2. Information including sight of any written or electronic communication detailing any remedial work carried out on the A9, Auchterarder between A824 and Main Road A824 junctions from February 2019 to June 2019.
3. Information including sight of any written or electronic communication detailing the roads inspection regime on the A9, Auchterarder between A824 and Main Road A824 junctions from February 2019 to June 2019.
4. Information including sight of any written or electronic communication detailing all road maintenance tasks undertaken on the A9, Auchterarder between A824 and Main Road A824 junctions from February 2019 to June 2019.
5. Information including sight of any written or electronic communication detailing any reported complaints in relation to the A9, Auchterarder between A824 and Main Road A824 junctions from February 2019 to June 2019.
6. Information including sight of any written or electronic communication detailing any reports of incidents occurring on the A9, Auchterarder between A824 and Main Road A824 junctions from February 2019 to June 2019”.
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 and 2. Annex A shows inspection and defects, including any remedial work resulting from these inspections, recorded on the A9 between A824 and Main Road A824 junctions from 1 February 2019 – 30 June 2019.
3. The A9 is subject to safety inspection at 7 day intervals and safety patrol midway between inspections, the route is also subject to detailed walked inspection annually.
4. Annex B/B1 provides details of works carried out on the A9 between A824 and Main Road A824 junctions from 1 February 2019 – 30 June 2019.
5. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this Transport Scotland do not have the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. There have been no complaints made in relation to the A9 between A824 and Main Road A824 junctions from 1 February 2019 – 30 June 2019.
6. Annex C shows incidents reported on the A9 between A824 and Main Road A824 junctions from 1 February 2019 – 30 June 2019.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Detected exemption language
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. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs.