Damage made to Crown property by vehicles: EIR release

Information requested

"The following information for trunk roads managed by Transport Scotland:-

• "Identified and Insured Third Party Vehicle Damage Incidents.
• Total number of incidents split by years 2020, 2021 & 2022.
• Total Cost to Transport Scotland in affecting repairs only, split by years 2020, 2021 & 2022.

2 – Untraced and Uninsured Third-Party Vehicle Damage Incidents

• Total number of incidents split by years 2020, 2021 & 2022.
• Total Cost to Transport Scotland in affecting repairs only, split by years 2020, 2021 & 2022".

On 7 December you also clarified that you were seeking the above information in relation to details of damage made to Crown property by vehicles.

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 (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 to your request

Question 1A and 2A

The table below lists the total number of Damage to Crown Property Incidents for each year that you requested, split to indicate where the third party causing the damage was either identified or untraced.

Third Party	2020	2021	2022
Identified	349	399	108
Unknown	1051	915	455
Total	1400	1314	563

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 some of the information you have requested because we do not hold information on whether the third party was insured. Any third party causing damage can be held liable for the costs of repair regardless of their insurance status.

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 the details of insurances held, clearly, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Question 1B and 2B

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested. We are, therefore, are refusing part of your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. This is because some of the costs to Transport Scotland for such repairs cannot be disaggregated from other costs in the contract. The table below summarises the direct costs incurred by Transport Scotland for the repair works carried out by our maintenance contractor.

The table provides the total costs for repairs , which cannot be split between those where the culprit could be identified and those where the third party was not known. Under the terms of the maintenance contract, the contractor bears the cost for some (eg minor) damage repair activities and may recover those costs directly from the relevant third party.

Calendar Year	Cost to Transport Scotland
2020	£942,440
2021	£434,738
2022	£530,797
Grand total	£1,907,975

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.