A96 Corridor Review spend: EIR release

Information requested

1.A breakdown of the £5,981,787.02 that has been spent on the A96 corridor review since the 1st April 2022.

2.A breakdown of the £3,265,047.17 that was spent on the A96 corridor review between the 1st April 2022 and 31st March 2023.

3.A breakdown of the £2,362,603.37 that was spent on the A96 corridor review between the 1st April 2023 and 31st March 2024.

4.A breakdown of the £354,136.48 that was spent on the A96 corridor review between the 1st April 2024 and 22 July 2024.

Response

As all of 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

Please see table below with breakdown of costs by financial year and by advisors undertaking work on the A96 Corridor Review:

Financial Year	Breakdown	Total Cost including non-recoverable VAT
1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023	Jacobs Aecom: £3,215,659.92	£3,265,047.17
	The Big Partnership: £43,277.00
	David Simmonds Consultancy: £6,110.25
1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024	Jacobs Aecom: £2,362,603.37	£2,362.603.37
1 April 2024 to 22 July 2024	Jacobs Aecom: £354,136.48	£354,136.48

Further Information

The total spent to date on the A96 Corridor Review reflects the extensive appraisal and assessment work that is required to appropriately inform this review of the A96 corridor between Inverness and Aberdeen and includes consideration of the significant number of responses received through the initial consultation exercise and intensive sifting process to determine the initial options for further appraisal.

The Corridor Review is being undertaken in accordance with Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG) which supports the Scottish Government’s objectives by providing a clear framework to assess evidence based transport problems and opportunities. It does so by promoting robust, objective-led analysis that can be consistently applied in all transport appraisal contexts.

The review’s initial consultation generated 11,000 different options for improving the corridor, and it is essential that they be fully appraised. The sheer volume of responses received and the high number of options this generated, it is only right that it has taken Transport Scotland more time that originally anticipated to fully appraise these. The first part of the review, a report on the Public Consultation and the Initial Appraisal: The Case for Change Report, was published on 22 December 2022 (https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/initial-appraisal-case-for-change-december-2022-a96-corridor-review/).

More recently work has focused on the detailed appraisal of the remaining options as well as engagement with stakeholders and the development of the further assessment, including a Climate Compatibility Assessment, Strategic Environmental Assessment and Statutory Impact Assessments (Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment, Fairer Scotland Duty Assessment, Equality Impact Assessment and a Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment), required to inform the Review.

The outcomes of the review are expected to be ready in the coming months for public consultation, before a final decision can be reached.

This expenditure is not unreasonable given the length and complexity of the corridor subject to the Review and the extent of the specialist appraisal and assessment work required to be undertaken by our appointed technical advisors, Jacobs Aecom, to properly inform the Review. The expenditure set out in the table above for David Simmonds Consultancy was required to undertake specialist land-use modelling with the expenditure by The Big Partnership necessary to support the comprehensive public engagement exercise undertaken in 2022.

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