Trunk roads that have been earmarked for funding: EIR release

Information requested

A list of the trunk roads that have been earmarked for funding in the 2025-26 financial year along with the amounts that will be spent on these roads.

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.

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 have some of the information you have requested because Transport Scotland’s trunk road maintenance budget is not allocated on a route or part-route basis. It is distributed based upon need and prioritisation of schemes developed from regular inspections and condition surveys.

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 funding, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Spend on our trunk road improvement projects is managed within the Capital Land and Works allocation of £157.5 million as part of the Trunk Road Network: Safety, Adaptation, Maintenance and Improvement Spending Plans set out in the Scottish Budget: 2025-26 (Scottish Budget 2025 to 2026 - gov.scot).

This covers preparation and delivery of a range of projects and programmes including A9 Dualling Perth to Inverness, A96 Dualling Inverness to Nairn (including Nairn Bypass), A83 Rest and Be Thankful, A9/A96 Inshes to Smithton, M8 Woodside viaducts and A720 Sheriffhall Roundabout. Spend on each individual project is managed with the Capital Land and Works allocation budget line which reflects the scope of work anticipated to be taken forward within the financial year

The Scottish Budget 2025-26 also sets out the total investment in safely operating and maintaining the trunk road network. We will invest £580.9 million in critical safety, maintenance and infrastructure including Tay Road Bridge. Together with the £133 million being invested in operating our Public, Private Partnership (PPP) road schemes, this takes total investment in managing, maintaining and safely operating the Scottish trunk road network to a record level of over £714 million, an increase of 4.5% on 2024-25.

This will be invested across all routes on the Scottish trunk road network. The increased budget for trunk road network safety, adaptation, operation and maintenance will enable us to meet our contractual and legal commitments as well as support our wider commitments on road safety and climate change adaptation. We will focus our investments on the highest priority safety critical maintenance, ensuring resilience to severe weather events and to deliver on our commitment to maintain a safe and reliable 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 https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.