FOI/202400421204 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Details of roadkill on UK roads 2022-2024: EIR release
Information requested
The number and type of dead animal found on roads managed by Transport Scotland in 2022, 2023 (calendar years) and 2024 (up to the end of June).
Please provide the information in an Excel spreadsheet (or similar format), broken down by: year, month, road name (eg: M8), and animal type.
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.
Some of the information you have requested is available from a previous Freedom of Information request - reference 202300355447, which can be found at - Roadkill on motorways and major roads in Scotland: EIR release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). This shows details from 1 January 2022 - 5 May 2023. Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.
Please see Annex A to this response for the numbers of dead animals which were recorded on the trunk road network between 6 May 2023 and 30 June 2024.
About FOI
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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.