A9 and A96 Dualling Programmes Correspondence: EIR release

Information requested

“1. Copies of all correspondence sent to or from the secretary of state for net zero, energy and transport, and/or correspondence sent to or from the transport minister, between June 1 and December 9 2022, in which there is discussion of the timetable and/or financing and/or affordability of the A9 and/or A96 dualling programmes.”

Response

As all of 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.

Please find below response to requests for information you made in your email.

Response to your request
In response to your request above, please refer to Annex A which contains correspondence sent to or from the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport, and/or correspondence sent to or from the Minister for Transport, between 01 June and 09 December 2022, in which there is discussion of the timetable and/or financing and/or affordability of the A9 and/or A96 dualling programmes.

Please refer to Annex B which contains extracts of submissions and emails to the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport, and/or the Minister for Transport, between 01 June and 09 December 2022, in which there is discussion of the timetable and/or financing and/or affordability of the A9 and/or A96 dualling programmes.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. This exception has been applied to Annexes A and B contained within this response.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs (internal communications) applies to some of the information because it is internal communication between Transport Scotland / Scottish Government officials and Scottish Ministers about timetable and/or financing and/or affordability of the A9 and/or A96 dualling programmes. This exception has been applied to Annex B contained within this response. The reasons why that exception applies are explained below.

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. We recognise that there is some public interest in release as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in maintaining high quality policy and decision-making, and in the properly considered implementation and development of policies and decisions. This means that Ministers and officials need to be able to consider all available options and to debate those rigorously, to fully understand their possible implications. Their candour in doing so will be affected by their assessment of whether discussions on timetable and/or financing and/or affordability of the A9 and/or A96 dualling programmes will be disclosed in the near future, when it may undermine or constrain the Government’s view on that policy while it is still under development. The information requested is internal communication regarding development of government policy and if released would otherwise impact on effective conduct of public affairs.

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. We have applied this regulation to extracts of briefings from 01 June 2022 to 23 June 2022 and correspondence referenced below:

1. 202200302028
2. 202200302304
3. 202200302363
4. 202200304260
5. 202200305176
6. 202200305412

This information has been released under Freedom Of Information 202200305664 and can be accessed via the Scottish Government’s website online at; https://www.gov.scot/publications/. We have also applied this regulation to Parliamentary Questions which is contained in Annex B and this information can be accessed via the Scottish Government’s website online at; https://archive2021.parliament.scot/parliamentary-business.aspx.

Additionally, an exception under regulation 10(4)(d) of the EIRs (unfinished or incomplete information) applies to some of the information you have requested because it is material which is still in the course of completion. This exception has been applied to Annex B contained within this response. The reasons why that exception applies are explained below.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all 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. This is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring that unfinished or incomplete information which is still being worked on is not disclosed when it might misinform the public.

Further information
Although falling outwith the scope of your request we have also included responses that have been issued from Transport Scotland officials as the original correspondence was sent to the Minister for Transport.

In addition, although falling outwith the scope of your request we have also included a piece of correspondence that was received on 16 May 2022 and the response was issued on 17 June 2022. We have also included responses that have been issued to those pieces of correspondence received between 10 November 2022 and 09 December 2022 which had not been answered by 09 December 2022.

Although falling outwith scope of your request we have also included the response that was issued to the piece of correspondence received 28 June 2022 from Liam Kerr MSP and 03 October 2022 from Fergus Ewing MSP. Please note that the response is from the Minister for Transport, Jenny Gilruth MSP, although was originally sent to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy, Kate Forbes MSP and the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon MSP.

Due to the size of the files we are unable to upload the documents referred to above. If you wish to consider, please contact us at the address below and we will be happy to provide.

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.