Correspondence regarding A96 project: EIR release

Information requested

1. Email correspondence, including attached files, to/from/cc Lawrence Shackman, Director of Major Projects at Transport Scotland to/from/cc email addresses containing "@aecom.com" and/or "@jacobs.com", between August 2021 and August 2023, filtered by keyword search for term: "Elgin" and/or "bypass" and/or "Keith" and/or "Inverurie" and/or "outcome".

2. Email correspondence, including attached files, to/from/cc Alison Irvine, Interim Chief Executive at Transport Scotland, to/from/cc email addresses containing "@aecom.com" and/or "@jacobs.com", between August 2021 and August 2023, filtered by keyword search for term: "Elgin" and/or "bypass" and/or "Keith" and/or "Inverurie" and/or "outcome".

3. Email correspondence, including attached files, to/from/cc Stuart Leggat, Interim Director of Roads at Transport Scotland to/from/cc email addresses containing "@aecom.com" and/or "@jacobs.com", between August 2021 and August 2023, filtered by keyword search for term: "Elgin" and/or "bypass" and/or "Keith" and/or "Inverurie" and/or "outcome".

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.

Please find enclosed the information requested at Annex A to this letter.

Please note, an exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information contained within said Annex because it is personal data and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998. 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.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance an exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs (internal communications) also applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception applies because the information is internal communications between Transport Scotland officials and their design consultants at Jacobs/ Aecom in relation to the final content of the A96 Corridor Review technical note for the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2).

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, there is a greater public interest in high quality policy and decision-making, and in the properly considered implementation and development of policies and decisions. This means that 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 the discussions in relation to a policy document such as the A96 Corridor Review will be disclosed in the near future, when it may undermine or constrain the Government’s view on that policy while it is was still under discussion and development.

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 202300371575 - Information Released - Annex A

File type

12 page PDF

File size

809.4 kB