Publication - FOI/EIR release

Complaints about potholes by cyclists: EIR release

Published: 26 June 2018
Topic: Public sector, Transport

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

FOI reference: FOI/18/01378
Date received: 14 May 2018
Date responded: 12 June 2018

Information requested

1. How many individual potholes (if known) or reports of potholes have you had reported by members of the public or highways officers, broken down by month, for the following years:

2015
2016
2017
2018 to date

2. How many complaints or incident reports have you received about potholes either by cyclists or relating to cyclists, broken down by month, for the following years:

2015
2016
2017
2018 to date

3. How much have you spent or allocated on cycling infrastructure for the following years:

2015
2016
2017
2018

4. Number of claims made by cyclists in 2017 and so far in 2018 in the following categories, and of those claims how many were successful:

Damage to bicycle
Damage to cycling equipment or other personal belongings
Dental
Loss of sight or hearing
Loss of limbs or permanent disablement
Death
Other

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.

In response to question 1 please see attached Annex A which contains details of potholes reported or discovered for the years requested.

Annex B contains information in relation to the number of complaints or incident reports relating to cyclists. We have also applied 10(4)(a) of the EIRs to question 2. The reasons why that exception applies is some of our Operating Companies were not able to provide figures for certain months in 2018. This is due to the manner in which the information is stored as some do not distinguish the type of caller i.e. cyclist or HGV driver.

In relation to question 3 we have also applied exception 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. We do not hold information on Cycling Infrastructure alone, rather it is Active Travel Infrastructure which includes walking and cycling. These figures have been provided below;

Spend on Active Travel Infrastructure:

2015/16	£32,953,936
2016/17	£31,016,021
2017/18	£34,475,071
2018/19 (allocation)	£66,320,000

Please refer to Annex C which details the number of claims made by cyclists in 2017 and 2018 to date.

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