EIR/202500479781 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Transport Scotland - Erskine Bridge (A898) maintenance and repair expenditure: EIR release
Information requested
I request the following information about the Erskine Bridge (A898) for 2019/20 to 2023/24:
Costs Annual spending on maintenance and repairs Annual spending on inspections Major upgrade costs (if any).
Contractors Names of contractors awarded work. Amount paid to each contractor per year. Types of work done.
Top 5 Contractors Which contractors received the most money over 5 years Total amount paid to each?
Please provide figures in pounds sterling and state if VAT is included.
If Transport Scotland holds this information, please transfer this request to them.
This information is in the public interest as it shows how taxpayer money is spent on critical transport infrastructure.
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.
To aid with my response, I have repeated your requests below:
Annual spending on maintenance and repairs Annual spending on inspections Major upgrade costs (if any).
Please see Annex A to this response. Figures are provided in pounds sterling and are exclusive of VAT.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reason why the exception applies is because information relating to inspection costs for Erskine Bridge is not held. These costs are included within contractual lump sum items which cover the inspections of many structures and cannot be broken down.
Can you provide names of contractors awarded work. Provide the Amount paid to each contractor per year and provide the Types of work done.
The contractors and amounts are included within Annex A of this response
Top 5 Contractors. Which contractors received the most money over 5 years Total amount paid to each.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reason why that exception applies is because Transport Scotland does not maintain a list of the “Top 5 Contractors” at Erskine Bridge. Therefore we are unable to provide you with details of what contractors have received the “most money” within the last 5 years. However, we have included the amount paid to each contractor in Annex A.
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.
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.