COVID-19 vaccination campaign on electronic road signs: EIR release

Information requested

"The following information via a freedom of information request, thank you in advance.

• Who co-ordinated and/or directed the advertisement campaign to ‘get COVID-19 vaccinations’ on the trunk roads and motorways electronic signs within transport Scotland?
• Was this ‘vaccination campaign on electronic road signs’ an internal initiative or external to transport Scotland?
• If external, who proposed this to transport Scotland?
• Was transport Scotland funded to run this ‘vaccination campaign on electronic road signs’? If so, how much funding was received and from who?
• How long is this ‘vaccination campaign on road electronic signs’ expected run for?
• Does Transport Scotland have any information on how this ‘vaccination campaign on electronic road signs’ will positively impact upon the journeys and road safety of road users travelling in Scotland?
• Will Transport Scotland continue to run advertising campaigns on their electronic road signs that have nothing to with roads, disruptions to travel or road safety conditions for travelling?"

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.

The answer to your questions are below:

Q) Who co-ordinated and/or directed the advertisement campaign to ‘get COVID-19 vaccinations’ on the trunk roads and motorways electronic signs within transport Scotland?
A) The Variable Message Signs (VMS) support was agreed by Scottish Minister’s, following a request from the Scottish Government to assist with COVID messaging across the communication outlets available to Transport Scotland (using Traffic Scotland).

Q) Was this ‘vaccination campaign on electronic road signs’ an internal initiative or external to transport Scotland?
A) The Vaccination campaign formed part of the wider COVID messaging campaign as we moved through the COVID route map.

Q) If external, who proposed this to transport Scotland?
A) This was proposed to Transport Scotland by the Scottish Government.

Q) Was Transport Scotland funded to run this ‘vaccination campaign on electronic road signs’? If so, how much funding was received and from whom?
A) No funding was provided to Transport Scotland to run the vaccination campaign on VMS.

Q) How long is this ‘vaccination campaign on road electronic signs’ expected to run for?
A) The campaign ended in early February and ran for period of around 6 weeks.

Q) Does Transport Scotland have any information on how this ‘vaccination campaign on electronic road signs’ will positively impact upon the journeys and road safety of road users travelling in Scotland?
A) Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), Transport Scotland is not required to provide information which it does not have. We do not have the information you have requested because Transport Scotland does not hold information on how this ‘vaccination campaign on electronic road signs’ will positively impact upon the journeys and road safety of road users travelling in Scotland.

This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about the safety of road users in Scotland, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Q) Will Transport Scotland continue to run advertising campaigns on their electronic road signs that have nothing to with roads, disruptions to travel or road safety conditions for travelling?
A) Transport Scotland will continue to provide support with background messaging regarding national campaigns where possible and relevant to government activities and interests.

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.