EIR/202500461021 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Code of Practice for Litter and Refuse notifications on Scottish Trunk Road network: EIR release
Information requested
In Schedule 7 Part 1 of the 4th Generation Term Contract for management and maintenance of the Scottish Trunk Road network, Para 4.34.8 requires -"The Operating Company to notify the local authority in writing, with a copy to the Director, if the standard of cleanliness falls below that required by the Code of Practice for Litter and Refuse".
I want to know how many of such notifications have taken place in the previous 5 years across Scotland, to what authorities and when.
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.
You asked, under Schedule 7 Part 1 of the 4th Generation Term Contract for management and maintenance of the Scottish Trunk Road network, Para 4.34.8 which requires Transport Scotland's Operating Companies to notify the local authority in writing, with a copy to the Director, if the standard of cleanliness falls below that required by the Code of Practice for Litter and Refuse, how many notifications have taken place in the previous 5 years across Scotland, to what authorities and when.
Some maintenance and management services carried out on the trunk road network are not the Operating Company’s responsibility. They are the responsibility of individual Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DFBO) concessionaires who are responsible for some roads for a set period of time. A total of 34 litter notifications have been issued by Transport Scotland's Operating Companies and DBFOs in the preceding 5 years. Please see Annex A to this response for a breakdown of the information you requested.
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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.