Road maintenance, compensation and resurfacing details: EIR release

Information requested

1. How much money has been spent on central road maintenance each year from 2014 – 2024?
2. How much money has been spent repairing potholes each year from 2018 – 2024?
3. How many potholes have been reported each year from 2018 – 2024?
4. How many potholes have been inspected after reporting each year from 2018 – 2024?
5. How many potholes have been repaired each year from 2018 – 2024?
6. How long (on average) does it take for a pothole to be repaired after reported - average for each year from 2018 – 2024?
7. How many compensation claims have been made in regards to pothole vehicle damage each year from 2018 – 2024?
8. How many of those compensation claims have been successful / resulted in payouts each year from 2018 – 2024?
9. How much money has been spent in payouts for compensation claims in regards to pothole vehicle damage each year from 2018 – 2024?
10. How much has been spent on road resurfacing for each year from 2018 – 2024?

You clarified on 4 April, that central road maintenance means the general maintenance of the road. The information provided is in the format it’s held in (some financial years, some calendar years).

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 to your request

I have kept your numbering for ease of reference

1. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. This is because our DBFO Companies are paid an agreed monthly Unitary Charge to carry out a range of services, which includes financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of the project network. Costs for road maintenance are included in these payments, and cannot be disaggregated. In addition information is only held up to September 2023.

Please see table below which shows the details that we do hold on central road maintenance each year from 2014 – 2024.

Year	Spend
2014/15	£139,714,421.24
2015/16	£145,576,692.98
2016/17	£179,306,080.38
2017/18	£203,058,137.57
2018/19	£227,060,143.58
2019/20	£228,095,341.49
2020/21	£266,009,392.67
2021/22	£319,056,592.72
2022/23	£361,184,026.40
2023/24	£336,342,522.31 up to September 2023

2. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. This is because some of our Operating Companies are paid an agreed monthly Unitary Charge to carry out a range of services, which includes financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of the project network. Costs for Category 1 pothole repairs are included in these payments, and are not disaggregated. Category 2 pothole repair costs are carried out as part of other schemes and cannot be separated.

Please see table below which shows the spend details we do hold on repairing potholes each year from 2018 – 2024.

Year	Cost of pothole repairs
2018/19	£112,700.32
2019/20	£27,661.89
2020/21	£200,946.66
2021/22	£386,086.11
2022/23	£2,874,802.22
2023/24	£4,161,660.92

3. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. This is because for some of our Operating Units information prior to August 2022 this information was not routinely recorded.

Category 1 potholes are defined within the term maintenance contract as those that present, or could present, an immediate hazard to trunk road users. They are typically detected during driven safety related inspections. The table below shows the number of Category 1 potholes recorded since 2018.

Year	Number of potholes reported
2018/19	11461
2019/20	12374
2020/21	12695
2021/22	9609
2022/23	8326

4. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs.

This is because Our Operating Companies term maintenance contracts set out strict timescales for their repair. Following identification of Category 1 pothole defects, the Operating Companies are required to make the defect safe by 6am the following morning, preferably by completing a
permanent repair. Where this is not possible then a temporary repair is required within the same timescale and permanent repairs are required within 28 days.

Our Operating Companies have a contractual obligation to inspect the trunk road network at 7- day intervals. These inspections are primarily to identify defects that require prompt attention (Category 1 defects) because they present, or could present, an immediate hazard to road users. For road surface Category 1 defects the Operating Companies are required to carry out temporary repairs by 6am the following morning and permanent repairs within 28 days. At the midpoint between these inspections a safety patrol is carried out and, again, any category 1 defects are noted and repaired.

5. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. This is because for some of our Operating Units information prior to August 2022 this information was not routinely recorded.

Please see table below showing the number of potholes that have been repaired each year from 2018 – 2024.

Year	Number of potholes repaired
2018/19	450
2019/20	575
2020/21	734
2021/22	491
2022/23	5434
2023/24	7544

6. Please see table below showing the average repair time for Category 1 Potholes repaired within each of the years listed below. This is the latest information we hold

Year	Average repair time (days)
2018	6
2019	6
2020	7
2021	9
2022	11

7. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. This is because under the terms of their contracts with the Scottish Ministers, Transport Scotland’s Operating Companies are required to deal directly with claimants with respect to all claims in relation to the operation of the trunk road network.

Below is a table of the information in calendar years of which we have been supplied.

Year	Number of compensation claims
2018	935
2019	178
2020	162
2021	621
2022	403
2023	659
2024	209

8. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. This is because under the terms of their contracts with the Scottish Ministers, Transport Scotland’s Operating Companies are required to deal directly with claimants with respect to all claims in relation to the operation of the trunk road network.

Please see below table with the information we do hold.

Year	successful claims
2018	673
2019	83
2020	66
2021	211
2022	147
2023	228
2024	44

9. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. This is because under the terms of their contracts with the Scottish Ministers, Transport Scotland’s Trunk Road Operating Companies/DBFOs are required to deal directly with claimants with respect to all claims in relation to the operation of the trunk road network.

10. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. This is because some of our Operating Companies are paid an agreed monthly Unitary Charge to carry out a range of services, which includes financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of the
project network.

Please see table below showing the expenditure information we do hold for financial years requested is provided in the table below.

2018/19	£77,639,236.43
2019/20	£84,193,670.52
2020/21	£105,203,617.91
2021/22	£121,971,854.95
2022/23	£127,212,822.86
2023/24	£105,792,273.79

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.