Publication - FOI/EIR release

Number of Road obstruction/debris types: EIR release

Published: 18 September 2024
Topic: Public sector, Transport
FOI reference: EIR/202400422740
Date received: 16 July 2024
Date responded: 25 July 2024

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

Information requested

“1. Please provide the number of obstructions recorded on motorways by obstruction/debris type, for the following calendar years 2022, 2023 and 2024 up to the end June. Please provide the information in an Excel spreadsheet (or similar format), broken down by month and year (or just year, if month is not possible).

2. Please provide the number of obstructions recorded on A-roads by obstruction/debris type, for the following calendar years 2022, 2023 and 2024 up to the end June. Please provide the information in an Excel spreadsheet (or similar format), broken down by month and year (or just year if month is not possible).

3. If available, please also provide the total number of full Motorway or carriage way closures caused by these obstructions, and the total number of temporary lane closures caused by these obstructions in the following calendar years 2022, 2023 and 2024 up to the end June.

If it is not possible to provide all the information requested, please prioritise questions 1 and 2, prioritising the most recent year(s).”

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

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 Transport Scotland is only responsible for the management and maintenance of the Trunk Road Network. Local Authorities are responsible for the remaining A roads in Scotland. You may wish to contact them directly for additional information.

In addition, the specific type of obstruction/debris is not routinely recorded by all Operating Companies/DBFO Operators.

Please see Annexes A – I which give the details that are held for both motorways and A roads on the Trunk Road Network.

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.