Publication - FOI/EIR release

Correspondence between Transport Scotland and Department for Transport regarding extension to the Borders Rail: EIR release

Published: 3 September 2024
Topic: Public sector, Transport
FOI reference: EIR/202400412009
Date received: 1 May 2024
Date responded: 31 May 2024

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

Information requested

All correspondence between Transport Scotland and the Department for Transport regarding the extension to the Borders Rail.

You further clarified you were seeking correspondence relating to the proposed extension from Tweedbank to Carlisle between 1 January 2021 to 1 May 2024.

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.

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested in Word Document and PDF format in Annex B.

I also enclose PDF attachments (Annex C – H), which are attachments contained in the emails in Annex B.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to all 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.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exception under regulation 10(5)(e) Confidentiality of commercial or industrial information, provided for by law to protect legitimate economic interest of the EIRs applies to that information.

ANNEX A

An exception applies

An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. 10(5)(e) Confidentiality of commercial or industrial information, provided for by law to protect legitimate economic interest is applied as some information is commercially sensitive and therefore may cause harm to the legitimate economic interest surrounding the proposed Borders Railway Extension.

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 because Transport Scotland aims to be open and transparent.

However, this is outweighed by the public interest in that this information could cause harm to the future work of the feasibility study of extending the Borders Railway from Tweedbank to Carlise and this could cause harm to the legitimate economic interest surrounding this topic.

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.