Correspondence relating to the A9 Dualling Programme: EIR release

Information requested

• Any correspondence (Emails and WhatsApp messages) between John Swinney MSP and Jenny Gilruth MSP about the A9 dualling between 1 December 2023 and 22 February 2023.
• Any correspondence (Emails, WhatsApp messages, meeting notes) between Jenny Gilruth MSP and Transport Scotland about the A9 dualling between 1 December 2023 and 22 February 2023.

You clarified on 2 March 2023 that the time period for the information you are requesting is 1 December 2022 to 22 February 2023.

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.

Response:

Any correspondence (Emails and WhatsApp messages) between John Swinney MSP and Jenny Gilruth MSP about the A9 dualling between 1 December 2023 and 22 February 2023.

Any correspondence (Emails, WhatsApp messages, meeting notes) between Jenny Gilruth MSP and Transport Scotland about the A9 dualling between 1 December 2023 and 22 February 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.

We have applied this regulation to correspondence to/from the Minister for Transport and officials between 1 December 2022 and 9 December 2022. This information has been released under Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 and can be accessed via the Scottish Government’s website online at; https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202200334072/

PE1992 Petition response can be accessed via the Scottish Parliament website online at; PE1992 Dual the A9 and improve road safety | Scottish Parliament Website

Parliamentary Questions and official reports can be accessed via the Scottish Parliament website online at; https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report

A9 Dualling Parliamentary Statement can also be accessed via the Scottish Parliament website online at; Official Report (parliament.scot)

Remaining correspondence to/from the Minister for Transport and officials between 1 December 2022 and 22 February 2023 has been provided in Annex A.

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.

An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs (substantial prejudice to confidentiality of commercial information) applies to some of the information you have requested.This exception applies because disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the confidentiality of commercial information provided by a third party and thus cause substantial harm to its commercial interests.

In view of the planned new procurement for the Tomatin to Moy project, disclosing information obtained during the course of the previous procurement would be likely to cause harm to the third party concerned in relation to their potential involvement in new procurement.

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 a public interest in disclosing information as part of open and transparent government, and to help account for the expenditure of public money. However, there is a greater public interest in protecting the commercial interests of companies which tender for Transport Scotland’s contracts, to ensure that we are always able to obtain the best value for public money.

In addition 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. This exception has been applied to some of the information requested and 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 briefing material, 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.

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.

FOI 202300344674 - Information Released - Annex A

File type

60 page PDF

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836.5 kB