· FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Correspondence concerning planned A77 Improvement scheme Drummuckloch/Innermessan: EIR release
Information requested
Information on the review in 2012/13 which established that the Drummuckloch to Innermessan, Ardwell to Stockenray (sic), and Burnside Improvement schemes offered poor value for money and so would not be taken forward.
Response
The information requested falls within the definition of 'environmental information' in regulation 2(1) of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (the EIRs), and so we are required to deal with it under those Regulations.
An exemption under section 39(2) of FOISA applies to this information which, in effect, means we do not have to consider a request under FOISA if we are dealing with it under the EIRs. As the exemption is conditional we have applied the 'public interest test'.
This means we have, in all the circumstances of this case, considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the exemption. It seems to us there is no public interest in dealing with this request under FOISA as well as the EIRs but there is a public interest in not duplicating work unnecessarily.
Therefore, we have concluded that the public interest favours maintaining the exemption. This is largely a technical point – the fact that we are dealing with your request under the EIRs rather than FOISA has no practical impact on our decision in relation to your request.
Please see attached a copy of the review in question.
Detected exemption language
An exemption under section 39(2) of FOISA applies to this information which, in effect, means we do not have to consider a request under FOISA if we are dealing with it under the EIRs. As the exemption is conditional we have applied the 'public interest test'. This means we have, in all the circumstances of this case, considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the exemption. Therefore, we have concluded that the public interest favours maintaining the exemption.