Road closures and accident statistics: EIR release

Information requested

Closures and accident figures related to the following roads - A1, A68, A7, A74(M), A701, A702, A72, A75, A76, A77, and A94.

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.

Q1 - In each of the last five years the total number of times road closures have taken place on each of these roads - A1, A68, A7, A74(M), A701, A702, A75, A76, A72, A77, A94?

A1 – Please see the following table for some of the information requested. For your information that we have assumed road closures to mean UNPLANNED closures as a result of incidents. We have also defined road closures to mean either full carriageway closures (full closure in one direction) or full road closures (full carriageway closures in both directions).

	A1	A68	A7	A74(M)	A701	A702	A75	A76	A77
2020	8	6	1	4	1	2	5	3	12
2021	4	6	4	6	3	2	26	6	19
2022	12	1	4	1	4	3	19	4	52
2023	14	12	6	2	2	6	21	8	29
2024*	3	1	0	1	2	0	13	2	11

* Up to 25 April 2024

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 hold closure information for the A72 and A94 as these are Local Authority roads. You may wish to contact the relevant Local Authority for further information on these routes.

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 information about road closures, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Q2 - In each of the last five years the total number of hours of road closure that has taken place on each of these roads due to road accidents - A1, A68, A7, A74(M), A701, A702, A75, A76, A72, A77, A94?

A2 - Please see the following table for some of the information requested. For your information that we have assumed road closures to mean UNPLANNED closures as a result of road traffic accidents only. We have also defined road closures to mean either full carriageway closures (full closure in one direction) or full road closures (full carriageway closures in both directions).

	A1	A68	A7	A74(M)	A701	A702	A75	A76	A77
2020	25.8	20.1	4.3	19.5	0	1.1	4	3	8
2021	3.6	14.4	16.2	37.5	7	2.7	18	6	12
2022	34.6	7	22.4	6.5	28	11.7	14	4	26
2023	45.9	42	11.9	16.5	2.25	8.6	13	8	14
2024*	14.6	0	0	5.5	3	0	10	2	3

* Up to 25 April 2024

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 hold closure information for the A72 and A94 as these are Local Authority roads. You may wish to contact the relevant Local Authority for further information on these routes.

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 information about road closures as a result of traffic accidents, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Q3 - In each of the last five years the total number of hours of lane closure that has taken place on each of these roads due to road accidents - A1, A68, A7, A74(M), A701, A702, A75, A76, A72, A77, A94?

A3 - Please see the following table for some of the information requested. For your information, we have assumed lane closures to mean UNPLANNED closures as a result of road traffic accidents only.

	A1	A68	A7	A74(M)	A701	A702	A75	A76	A77
2020	11.7	5.9	0	0	1	0	17.25	10.75	21.25
2021	28	1.3	7.7	0	1	0	110.3	32.6	45
2022	17.7	1.4	2.8	0	1	2.6	92	13.75	81
2023	21.2	5.6	8.5	0	2	7.4	96.7	34.5	54.5
2024*	6.4	0	0	0	0	0	65.3	4.75	8.25

* Up to 25 April 2024

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 hold lane closure information as a result of road traffic accidents for the A72 and A94 as these are Local Authority roads. You may wish to contact the relevant Local Authority for further information on these routes.

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 information about lane closures as a result of traffic accidents, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Q4 - Between January 1st 2020 and January 1st 2024, delineated by year. a. On dual-carriageway sections b. On non-dual-carriageway sections how many road traffic accidents there were on the following roads - A1, A68, A7, A74(M), A701, A702, A75, A76, A72, A77, A94?

A4 – 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. Transport Scotland does not hold information on all road traffic accidents only accidents that have resulted in personal injury. Information that we do hold will be provided in response to questions 5 and 6.

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 information about road traffic accidents, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Q5 - Between January 1st 2020 and January 1st 2024, delineated by year. a. On dual-carriageway sections b. On non-dual-carriageway sections how many fatal incidents accidents there were on the following roads - A1, A68, A7, A74(M), A701, A702, A75, A76, A72, A77, A94?

A5 – Please see the second tab of Annex A to this response for the information requested.

Q6 - Between January 1st 2020 and January 1st 2024, delineated by year. a. On dual-carriageway sections b. On non-dual-carriageway sections how many injury causing incidents accidents there were on the following roads - A1, A68, A7, A74(M), A701, A702, A75, A76, A72, A77, A94?

A6 – Please see the third tab of Annex A to this response for the information requested.

Q7 - Between January 1st 2020 and January 1st 2024, delineated by year. a. On dual-carriageway sections b. On non-dual-carriageway sections how many car breakdowns have been caused due to the quality of the following roads - A1, A68, A7, A74(M), A701, A702, A75, A76, A72, A77, A94?

A7 - 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. Transport Scotland does not hold information on the number of vehicles which have broken down as a result of road quality. We also do not hold closure information for the A72 and A94 as these are Local Authority routes. You may wish to contact the relevant Local Authority for the further information on these routes.

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 information about broken down vehicles as a result of road quality, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

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.

EIR 202400411064 - Information released - Annex A

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Excel document

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