Transport Scotland - A725 and A8 Junction information: EIR release

Information requested

In relation to the junction on the A725 at the slip road to the A8 which is used for traffic on the A725 wishing to join the A8 heading East (“the Junction”).

• We request copies of any emails, letters, documents, memos or reports, regarding the following:
• complaints or feedback about the Junction;
• complaints or feedback about the traffic lights at the Junction; or
• any accidents at the Junction

which were created, drafted, sent or received from 23 August 2024 to 10 December 2024.

• We request copies of any emails, letters, documents, drawings, risk assessments, memos or reports, regarding the following:
• changes to the layout of the Junction; or
• nspections of the Junction

which were created, drafted, sent or received from 18 July 2024 to 10 December 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.

Please see Annexes within Binder 1 attached to this response, for copies of any emails, letters, documents, memos or reports, in relation to
• complaints or feedback about the Junction;
• complaints or feedback about the traffic lights at the Junction; or
• any accidents at the Junction
for this junction for the timescale 23 August 2024 to 10 December 2024 as requested.

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

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

Please see Annexes contained within Binder 2 and file named Radar Sites, attached to this response, for copies of any emails, letters, documents, drawings, risk assessments, memos or reports, regarding the following in relation to
• changes to the layout of the Junction; or
• inspections of the Junction
for this junction for the timescale 18 July 2024 to 10 December 2024 as requested.

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

An exception under Regulation 12(5)(e) applies to some of the information requested because of confidentiality of commercial or industrial information. This exception is subject to the public interest test and in considering this, it has been decided the public interest in maintaining the exception outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Due to the size of the files we are unable to upload the documents referred to above.

If you wish to consider, please contact us at the address below and we will be happy to provide.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.